Once In A Lifetime
by ADV7121
Summary: Ash Ketchum, a quiet and reserved kid from Pallet Town, finishes in the Top 8 in the Johto League, becoming all the rage at Kanto High. How will he handle his newfound fame and what adventures will it lead him on? (Advanceshipping) (Amourshippng) (Pearlshipping)
1. Chapter 1

"Both Ash and Tyson are now down to their final pokémon," The announcers voice rang throughout the stadium and inside many homes for those who were watching on TV.

May Maple was shocked to say the least. After spending another Saturday doing homework and texting her boyfriend Drew, she decided to sit down and watch some TV.

While May was not the biggest fan of pokemon battling she did enjoy watching an occasional battle and the pokemon league tournaments. So she decided to watch some of the closing rounds of Johto's pokemon league.

Seeing Ash Ketchum, a fellow classmate of hers, in the final 8 of the Johto League, completely caught May off guard.

Both Ash and May attended Kanto High in Viridian City, May being from Pewter City, while Ash lived south of Viridian City in Pallet Town.

The two were both juniors and while they had never really spoken to one another, May seemed to know a bit about Ash, or so she thought.

Ash Ketchum was by far the quietest person in the junior class, if not the whole school. He had only one true friend, Gary Oak. Ash and Gary were childhood friends, and grew up spending lots of time together.

Gary flourished in high school, becoming one of the best players on Kanto Highs soccer team, as well as being a well-known heartbreaker to many of the girls.

Despite Gary's newfound popularity he was still best friends with Ash, they always enjoyed battling and hanging out in their free time.

Gary Oak was one of the few people who even knew that Ash both loved to battle, and was a serious trainer. Not a soul at Kanto High had known otherwise, mostly because Ash never really spoke much, or had any other friends aside from Gary.

May Maple was definitely surprised to see the shyest kid from her school, being the center of attention with thousands of fans cheering him on.

"That can't be… is that Ash Ketchum?" she said to herself.

May's Brother, Max Maple, happened to walk out of his bedroom door a few seconds earlier. Max was a huge fan of pokemon battling; he studied battle strategies and watch battles during most of his free time.

Max was a freshman at Kanto High, and was a stereotypical pokemon nerd. Despite his love for pokemon he was rather well known and generally liked by most other students.

"Ash who?" asked Max. Despite how much he kept up with pokemon leagues he didn't even recognize Ash.

"Ask Ketchum, He's in the same grade as me. He goes to our school Max." May told her brother.

"Wait really, that's so cool!" Max immediately found himself a new idol to look up too, and couldn't wait to talk to Ash at school the following week.

The two Maples' both turned back to the TV to see Ash's Pikachu and Tyson's Sceptile battling it out.

"Pikachu hit it with an Iron Tail"

"Iron Tail? That's a steel type move; I've never seen a Pikachu use that before! Exclaimed Max in awe.

"Counter it with a Leaf Blade!" shouted Tyson.

The two pokemon collided, sending each of them hurtling backwards. Both Sceptile and Pikachu had taken direct hits, now everyone watched as the two attempted to struggle to their feet. Sceptile found the strength in it to stand back up, but Pikachu was exhausted. After a few more moments of struggling, Pikachu collapsed in defeat.

"Pikachu is unable to battle, the victory goes to Sceptile and Tyson!" The referee announced as the crowd applauded both trainers for the great battle.

Ash ran over to Pikachu to make sure he was ok, before congratulating Tyson.

"That was an awesome battle Tyson, you've really trained your pokemon well!" Said Ash.

'Thanks Ash, your also a great trainer, I'd love to battle with you again someday".

After a handshake and some more words of encouragement the two went their separate ways. Tyson would now advance to the Top 4 while Ash's time in the Johto league was over.

"That was an awesome battle, both of them were really good!" Screamed Max.

"I still can't believe that that was really Ash out there…" Said May

"He seems so much different out on a battle field then he does at school." She thought to herself.

"Hey Kids, we're home!"

May and Max's Parents Norman and Caroline entered through the front door. Norman was a teacher at the Pewter City high school, which was much smaller than Kanto high. Caroline worked for a day care, as she absolutely adored children, and was beginning to miss them now that May and Max was growing up.

"Who's ready for dinner?" Asked Caroline.

Upon hearing this both May and Max raced each other to the kitchen, each hoping to get to the food first.

Ash was now at the pokemon center, retrieving all of his pokemon that he had used in his battle with Tyson. Despite losing, Ash held his head high with pride. In just his first every pokemon league competition he had made it to the Top 8. He was sure that with this experience he would be able to do even better next spring in the Indigo League.

The Indigo league would also be more convenient when it came to gym battles too. In Johto Ash would have to take weekend trips just to challenge a gym. Now back in Kanto Ash would be able to go after school and battle gym leaders, at least in Viridian and Pewter City.

Unfortunately for Ash he did have school on Monday, so he wouldn't be able to stay for the finals. As Ash began to walk out of the pokemon center, he was tackled to the ground.

"That was a great battle Ashy boy, it's a shame you couldn't pull it off."

Ash looked up to see none of then his childhood friend Gary Oak. Along with him was his mother Delia, and professor Samuel Oak.

Ash shoved Gary off of him and stood up. "What are you all doing here?" Ash asked.

"We came to cheer you on of course, I couldn't stand staying at home when my little boy was off becoming a pokemon master." Delia teased him.

"Ya and while you were winning battles I was winning girls hearts." Laughed Gary.

"We're all very proud of you Ash, you've certainly come a long way." Professor Oak told him.

"Now how about we get something to eat and then head on home" Delia suggested.

Ash certainly didn't object. There were two things he loved in life, pokemon battling, and food. After arriving at the restaurant it wasn't long before Ash had finished two helpings of food at the all-you-can-eat buffet, before anyone else had even touched their food.

The ride back to Pallet took several hours, and it was about 10 P.m. by the time they returned. The Oaks said their goodbyes and headed back to the lab, while Ash and Delia went inside before collapsing on their beds after the long day.

After a good nights rest Ash was up by 6 A.M. as he had a lot planned for today. He was going to evaluate his team and decide which pokemon would suite him best for the Indigo league.

"Ok, Pikachu, Froakie, Staraptor, and Charizard. How do you guys feel about competing in the Indigo League with me?"

The four pokemon happily agreed and nodded to their trainer.

Ash figured that he would meet some new pokemon along the way and therefore left two spots open for now. But now it was back to training.

While Ash Ketchum certainly didn't seem the type, he was one of the fittest people around. He believed that training along side his pokemon helped them bond together as a team.

After his 3 mile run, Ash immediately began the strength portion of his workout. He jumped up and grabbed a tree branch. After knocking out over 20 pull-ups he immediately went straight into pushups.

After doing an ungodly amount of pushups, he went to go train his pokemon. The Pokémon's training wasn't any easier. They knew that they would have to work hard if they wanted to have a shot at winning a league championship.

"Well, well, well. I should've figured you'd be out here training already." Came the familiar voice of Gary Oak.

"Of course, we gotta be ready for the Indigo league next spring." Ash said as he ordered his pokemon to practice their attacks.

"Ha, even if you win a league you still won't be able to beat me." Laughed Gary.

Ash laughed back nervously. It was true; even though Gary didn't train as seriously and hadn't even participated in a pokemon league he always found a way to beat Ash.

"Well todays a new day, it's also the day I finally beat you Gary!" Exclaimed Ash.

"Oh is that so, we'll see about that."

After some more banter between the boys they agreed to a one on one battle.

"Alright Charizard, let's win this." Ash said, calling out one of his strongest and most intimidating pokemon.

"Let's get this over with already, come on out mudkip." Gary yelled.

Ash nearly fell over when he heard what pokemon Gary chose.

"I didn't say to go easy on me, you think I'm going to lose to a mudkip?" Ash asked. Charizard certainly had a big advantage, despite the type advantage mudkip had.

"Mudkip quick attack"

Mudkip charged towards Charizard before changing direction and heading towards a nearby tree.

"What's it doing?" Ash wondered to himself.

Before Ash could even realize it, Mudkip bounced right of the side of the tree and flew right towards Charizard, hitting it right in the face. Charizard quickly recovered and sent a flamethrower attack in all directions. But mudkip was nowhere to be seen.

"It's on your back Charizard, try to shake it off." Ash tried to warn his pokemon, but it was too late.

"Iron tail mudkip!"

An Iron tail from mudkip sent Charizard straight to the ground, a few moments later being dowsed by a water gun attack. It was clear that after just three direct hits, Charizard was unable to keep going.

"That's what, 103 wins in a row against you now Ash. Maybe someday you'll beat me." Gary said as he recalled his mudkip and went on his way.

"Uh, someday I'll beat him, but for now my focus is on winning the Pokémon league. You guys did great today, especially you Charizard, now go take a long rest." Ash told his pokemon.

After a quick shower and some breakfast, Ash ran out onto the bridge by his house. This was where he had his battle with Gary earlier. The bridge ran right over a river and lead to a trail through the woods.

Ash enjoyed coming out here often, as it was a place where he could be alone and enjoy nature. After climbing up the side of the bridge he sat down, with his feet dangling off the edge.

"I'm going to win the Indigo League, I can just feel it." Ash said, trying to motivate himself.

Back in Pallet Town, Gary was heading back home to the laboratory.

"Hmm, maybe I should become a pokemon trainer like Ash. Considering I've got 103 wins and 0 losses so far, ha-ha!" Gary laughed to himself. Despite his sense of humor he sometimes debated becoming a pokemon trainer. While he was a talented soccer player, he wasn't sure that he'd be able to make it to a good enough college to pursue soccer professionally, and pokemon trainer certainly was a popular and exciting route to take.

Gary's phone lit up with a text message:

From: Jasmine

"Hey are you here yet?"

"Oh whoops!" Gary said to himself, "forgot I had a date with her today, eh I never really liked her that much anyways."

With that Gary put his phoned back into his pocket and continued on his way.

 **The Next Morning**

Ash rolled over and turned off his alarm before getting ready for school. Ash never really enjoyed school, as his goal was to become a full time trainer after he graduated. Becoming a real trainer was certainly difficult as normal exhibition matches wouldn't provide a reliable income, he'd have to consistently do well in competitions and tournaments.

After a quick breakfast that Delia had cooked Ash was out the front door and began his walk to school.

Viridian City was only about a 20-30 min trip on foot so Ash walked every day, figuring that he could use the exercise, and possibly have a battle or two along the way.

Ash reached the front doors of Kanto high and sighed as life was back to usual. When Ash was training or battling he was having the time of his life, but the eight-hour school day was an absolute bore.

While Kanto High offered several classes relating to pokemon Ash was unable to sign up for them as the classes had already been filled before he got a chance to.

The instant Ash Ketchum walked through the doors he was immediately swarmed. People were shouting his name and congratulating him, they even picked him up and placed him on their shoulders.

Meanwhile Ash was utterly confused and even a little scared of what was happening.

"Who are you guys, and why the hell are you carrying me around?" Ash asked as he was carried around the hallway.

"We're your fans of course! Your battling at the Johto league championship was incredible.

Ash was at a loss for words.

Fans?

He had fans; his finally sunk in as he was dropped back to the ground only to be buried in questions.

Ash, not being used to talking to so many people, struggled to find words.

At that moment the bell to signal the start of first period rang.

"I'll catch you guys later, I got to go to class." Ash said as he snuck his way out of the circle and turned the corner to head to his first class.

He sighed as he finally got away, while he did like the idea of having fans, he certainly didn't like being mobbed out of the blue.

Even when Ash entered his chemistry test his teacher came up to him and shook his hand, congratulating him on his great battling. The students in that class also continued to bombard Ash with questions and compliments.

While the class was a boring lecture everyone's eyes were on Ash Ketchum. Everyone in the school was shocked that the quietest kid at Kanto High, could be so, awesome.

As soon as the bell rang signifying the end of class the questions continued, everyone trying to talk to him.

At this point it was becoming a bit much for Ash to handle. Instead of going to his next class, Ash ran outside before heading out to the schools pokemon-battling field. He needed some quiet, when all eyes weren't on him.

Even when battling in front of thousands of people he was never nervous like he had been earlier, he accounted this to the intensity of the battling, allowing him to forget about everyone watching him.

 **30 Min Earlier**

"Ah! What time is it?" May Maple shouted as she ran out of her room, her hair in a complete mess.

8:25

"Oh great, I'm already late for school" May grunted. She decided that if she was going to be late she might as well look good doing it.

After a shower and getting dressed, she walked out the door as she tied her signature red bandana on her head. After a quick drive through the Viridian Forest she arrived at Kanto High, just in time for the start of 2nd period.

As she parked her car and started walking towards the building, she noticed someone walking towards the pokemon-battling field.

After further investigation she noticed that it was Ash Ketchum. Immediately thoughts of watching him battle in the Johto league flooded her mind. Without even thinking she paced after him and began calling his name.

"Hey Ash!"

Ash spun around as he heard his name being called.

"Dear Arceus did they follow me out here?" Ash whispered to himself, who had hoped that he would have been able to find some peace and quiet out here.

To his surprise it was May Maple, all alone. Several questions came to Ash's mind as to what she was doing out here, but he figured that she would also congratulate him or something of the sorts.

"What are you doing out here?" May asked the raven hair boy, catching him off guard.

"Oh, um…" Ash replied trying to think of a good excuse.

"The fame a little to much for ya?" May giggled.

"You could say that." Ash said with a sigh.

"Well don't worry I won't go all fangirl on you." She said.

Relief immediately washed over the boys face.

"Although, what you did was incredible, Top 8 in any pokemon league is absurdly good, everyone's talking about you." May told him.

" Thanks I guess," said Ash, who rubbed the back of his head, something he did when was embarrassed.

The two had slowly made their way onto the field by this point and had come to the bleachers on the sideline. They both sat down, Ash still trying to let everything sink in from the past hour.

"Oh shoot!" Cried May. "I've got to get to class." She hopped off the bench.

"Aren't you coming too Ash?" She questioned him. They had history class together next and even sat right across from each other.

"Nah, I'm just going stay here for awhile." Ash told her. While he did enjoy her company he surely didn't want to head back inside.

"Oh alright, I just wanted to say congrats Ash, your really a great trainer, keep working at it. I'll see you around!" The brunette said as she turned and walked towards the school.

Ash let a smile slip out from his usually serious looking face. He was proud of what he had been able to accomplish, but he had so much more planned for his future.

After about an hour Ash decided that he should get back to class. On his way he noticed a sign up sheet posted near the fields.

"Kanto High Pokemon Tournament" It read. Ash, always ready for a good battle, didn't hesitate to sign up. "

Matches on Tuesdays and Thursdays until tournament ends." With Ash being the 16th person to sign up. He would have to win just 4 four matches to win.

Ash eventually returned to class, who then had to endure several more hours of his newfound fame. After the school day had ended, Ash started his journey home.

As he neared Pallet town Pikachu's ears perked up.

"What is it buddy?" Asked Ash. The small yellow mouse leaped off Ash's shoulder and ran over to several bushes, which were rustling around. As Ash approached the bush a small green pokemon popped out, now standing in front of them.

"Wow a Bulbasaur!" Ash said excitedly. He grabbed an empty pokeball, determined to catch it. Before he could even begin to battle however, the bulbsaur had already taken a liking to Ash and Pikachu. Soon Pikachu and Bulbasaur were running around playing together.

Ash sat back and laughed as the two pokemon enjoyed themselves. After several minutes of chasing each other around the two came back and sat by Ash. It was clear to see that the wild Bulbasaur enjoyed their company, which led Ash to ask Bulbasaur if he wanted to join his team. Bulbasaur agreed but not before wanting to battle, just to show off its strength. Ash did need a grass type pokemon as well, so a small and fast one like Bulbasur would be perfect.

Despite their friendly faces just seconds beforehand, the faces of both Pikachu and Bulbasaur turned serious, as the battle was about to begin.

"Ok Pikachu, this will be a good time to get some training in. I'm going to let you decide your attacks and movements." This was something that Ash rarely did, but he enjoyed doing it once in a while. Letting the pokemon trust themselves and their own instincts would be helpful, instead of just following Ash's orders all the time.

Bulbasaur took the first move and knocked over an unprepared Pikachu with a vine whip attack. Pikachu stood back up and charged in with a quick attack. The mouse's tail began to glow as it jumped above Bulbasaur, going for an iron tail attack. Bulbasaur sent it flying with a razor leaf.

Immediately afterwards Bulbasaur fired a leech seed, which coiled around Pikachu and drained its energy.

"That was great bulbasaur!" Ash said, deciding to end the battle now so that he wouldn't have to travel back to Viridian City in case Pikachu got too tired. With that Bulbasaur was satisfied and went into one of Ash's pokeballs, becoming the fifth member of his team.

Ash got home and spent some time completing his homework, to which he then went right back to training. A 5-mile run around Pallet town and a hardcore ab workout left him exhausted. He had little time to relax though as his pokemon needed training too.

Ash's introduced Bulbasaur too the rest of his pokemon, and had some light 1 on 1 battle between each of his pokemon before calling it a day.

 **Back at Kanto High**

Drew, the star soccer player for Kanto High walked out of the locker room after a long practice. Drew had an interesting reputation around school. He was popular because he was the best soccer player at Kanto High, and one of the best high school players in the whole region of Kanto. His personality though varied, he could be nice and charming when he needed to be, but could also be a complete asshole. He was also a "player" as some would say, when it came to girls, and would commonly cheat on his previous girlfriends. No one at Kanto High knew about that though, as Drew had just transferred there this school year.

May Maple had only seen his charming side so far. The couple met outside the school before going to get dinner. While she listened to Drew boast about his goals that he scored in practice, a reoccurring thought kept popping into her head, Pokemon.

While she had never owned a pokemon or particularly liked them, she did find some of them to be very cute, and would like one to keep as a pet.

May however, didn't know a single thing about raising a pokemon, so she always immediately shut down the idea of owning one rather quickly. She quickly remembered her previous conversation with Ash Ketchum that morning.

"Hmm… maybe I could ask him how to raise a pokemon." She thought to herself.

"Are you even listing to me?" Drew asked, puzzled by the blank stare in his girlfriends eyes.

No response.

"Uh, hello, earth to May!" The green haired boy said, waving his hand in front of her face.

"Oh um…." May said, feeling rather embarrassed.

"Is everything alright May?" He asked her.

"Ya of course, I was just thinking about some things."

"Like me scoring a hat trick this Friday against Fuschia City?" Drew said cockily.

"I better see you there cheering me on."

As the two parted ways and returned home, May Maple had come to a decision. She would ask her parents if she could get a pokemon.

 **Later that night in Pewter City**

"Of course May, that sounds like a great idea." Her father Norman told her. May jumped and hugged her dad in excitement.

"Thank you so much Dad, I'll make sure to take good care of it."

May had just asked her father if she could get her first pokemon, and much to her surprise he actually said yes.

"So which one are you gonna get?" Asked Max as he walked into the room.

"Um… I don't know. I didn't think I'd get this far." May said with a laugh.

"Well make sure it's a cool one, Trecko's are my personal favorite starters." The boy stated.

"Well I just want one that's cute and will be a good friend." May said enthusiastically.

"Well that'll be a first." Max said.

"A first what?"

"You having a friend." The boy said laughing at his older sister.

May sighed in embarrassment. It was true, aside from Drew, and her friend Dawn, she really didn't talk with anyone else, aside from a girl named Serena, which she saw occasionally.

"You better shut it before I teach that pokemon some attacks!" May said jokingly as a threat to her brother.

The boy then stuttered nervously before running out of the room, not wanting to anger his sister anymore. May laughed as she saw him run, she then went up to her room and sprawled out onto her bed.

"Maybe I can talk to Ash about raising pokemon tomorrow, oh, I also need to figured where I get my pokemon." She said to herself, so that she wouldn't forget the following morning.

 **The Next Day**

Ash made sure to grab each of his six pokeballs before heading to school. Today the pokemon tournament at Kanto High started, giving Ash something to look forward too.

May Maple was also excited, today she was going to ask Ash Ketchum how to raise her own pokemon, as well as hopefully find out where to get a starter pokemon, as she frankly had no idea. She hoped to catch Ash after school and talk with him then.

The school day went by rather slow for the both of them, each wanting to get onto something more exciting, pokemon.

After the school day ended, Ash headed out to the schools pokemon-battling field, as did seemingly half the school. Someone had told everyone that Ash had signed up, so naturally everyone wanted to come see his battling skills.

As the rest of the trainers came together one particular one stuck out to Ash.

Gary Oak.

Ash sighed and dropped his head, as he knew what this meant. Gary had also entered the tournament, and Ash certainly wasn't blooming with confidence anymore. He'd just have to hope that someone else took out Gary.

"Alright everyone listen up, I'm going explain the rules!" Said Tracy, head of the schools pokemon club. "Since there are 16 trainers, 4 wins will give you the championship. All battles will be single battles, and the number of pokemon used in a battle will be randomly decided by this!" Tracy told them as he rolled over a giant spinning wheel, segmented into six parts reading 1-6. "Also the matchups have already been randomly chosen. So if everyone's clear on that lets get started. First up is Richie against Paul."

A short brown haired boy named Richie and a tall purple haired boy named Paul each took their sides on the field. Both Paul and Richie were some of the very few serious trainers at Kanto High, so this would be a good matchup. Tracy spun the wheel and after several seconds the pointer landed on a one.

"Ok this will be a one on one battle between Paul and Richie." Said Tracy, who was also judging. "Let the battle begin!"

With that Paul and Richie each threw a pokeball. Paul's revealing a Drapion and Richie's being his Pikachu, which he called Sparky.

"Pin Missile Drapion!" Paul shouted.

"Dodge it Sparky!" Richie told his Pikachu. As the Pin Missile came hurtling past, Sparky used its Quick Attack to get away.

"Ok Sparky, keep going with Quick Attack, straight to double team." As Sparky reached Drapion many more Pikachu's surrounded it because of Sparky's double team. Drapion had no idea which one was the real one.

"Now use Thunder!"

From behind Drapion, Sparky leaped into the air and delivered its most powerful attack, which stunned Drapion.

"Now Slam!" Pikachu took advantage of Drapion's lapse of focus and knocked it over with a Slam Attack.

"Finish it with Iron Tail!" Richie yelled. An Iron Tail sealed the deal as the final blow left Drapion unconscious.

"Drapion is unable to battle, Sparky and Richie are the winners, they will advance to the 2nd round."

"Wow, he's really trained his Pikachu well!" Ash said to himself as he observed them.

Richie was smiling and thanking his pokemon while Paul was obviously disappointed, and immediately walked off. Paul certainly had talent for pokemon training, but talent alone. He was stubborn very often refusing to take anyone's advice or tips.

"Ok the 2nd match today is Ash against Jackson."

Ash took his side of the field, happy that he didn't have to go up against Gary right away. After a quick spin of the wheel the match was ready to begin.

"This is a two on two battle between Ash and Jackson, let's begin!" Called Tracy.

Ash grabbed his hat and spun it backwards on his head, officially entering "Battle mode".

Jackson threw out a Magnemite, while had called out his Cyndaquil. A lucky guess for Ash, as Cyndaquil had the type advantage here. Ash had brought his Cyndaquil along, just in case he got stuck in a 6 on 6 battle.

By this time even more people had crowded around, once they had heard that Ash was battling next, May Maple being one of them.

Magnemite started the battle with several Thunder Shock attacks. However Cyndaquil was one of the best attack dodgers Ash had ever seen, therefore the pokemon simply danced its way around the bolts of electricity.

"Cyndaquil use Smokescreen!" Ash said, already having a plan of attack formulated in his mind. As smoke covered the field no one could see where Cyndaquil had gone, not even Magnemite.

"Use Flame Charge then Swift!'

In a moments notice Cyndaquil appeared out the smoke surrounded by burning flames. It crashed into Magnemite, severally damaging it. Cyndaquil stood on top of Magnemite, before looking straight down and using Swift, sending Cyndaquil back into the air while Magnemite took more damage.

"Finish it with flamethrower!"

Cyndaquil reared back and sent a scorching Flamethrower at Mangemite. Sending it toppling backwards.

"Magnemite is unable to battle, Jackson now has one pokemon left!" Announced Tracy.

"Great job Cyndaquil!" Ash said happily, his strategy having worked.

"Ugh" Grunted Jackson in frustration. Despite going up against Ash Ketchum he'd hoped that he would be doing better.

"Alright lets go Meganium!"

Jackson's second and final pokemon Meganium materialized out its pokeball and faced its opponent.

"Use Razor Leaf!" Jackson said, making the first move.

"Dodge it Cyndaquil!" Once again Cyndaquil danced around the leafs effortlessly, evading every single one.

"Tackle attack Meganium!"

Meganium charged ahead full speed towards Cyndaquil.

"Now use Dig Cyndaquil!" Ash called. Just before Meganium reached it, the small pokemon had burrowed its way underground. It was a matter of moments before Cyndaquil popped back out of the ground right behind Meganium.  
"Overheat!"

As Meganium turned around to find its opponent, it was sent flying by Cyndaquil's most powerful attack. Despite a super strong and super effective point black hit, Meganium was somehow able to get back on its feet.

"Solar beam Meganium!" Jackson yelled to his pokemon.

"Use Quick Attack!" Ash told Cyndaquil hoping to get the attack of before Meganium launched the Solar Beam Attack.

The two pokemon and their attacks collided, knocking them both to the ground.

Cyndaquil struggled to its feet, obviously very tired. Meganium on the other hand hadn't fared so well, as it stayed down on the ground.

"Meganium is unable to battle! Ash and Cyndaquil win!"

"Alright, way to go Cyndaquil, you were incredible." Ash said as he embraced his pokemon. "Take a good rest now."

Both Ash and Jackson shook hands and went back to watch the other matches.

Meanwhile those watching stood in awe of Ash and his battling skills. He had absolutely dominated; Cyndaquil had taken down two pokemon and only took one hit right at the end. So everyone congratulated Ash, some even asking for his autograph. Ash scratched the back of his head and smiled as he signed various items for his fans. This was definitely something new for him, In the matter of two days he'd gone from the least popular person at school to basically a celebrity status.

Ash was quickly cut off from signing autographs as he learned that Gary was battling next, and this was a match he totally wanted to see.

Gary battled against another trainer named Steven, each using four pokemon. With just two of his pokemon, his Mudkip and Nidoking, Gary took down Steven and his pokemon rather easily. After the rest of the matches, Tracy announced the eight trainers who would go to the next round on Thursday. Ash was disappointed to learn that he wouldn't know whom he would be battling to the day of the match, but was still excited nonetheless.

Ash stood off to the side, getting ready to head home, while Gary went off to soccer practice.

Ash felt two small taps on his right shoulder. He turned around to finding the same smiling face that he'd encountered early yesterday morning.

"Oh, hey May! What's up?" Ash asked the brunette.

"Nothing much, I just want to ask you for a favor." May responded.

"Uh sure, what do you need?"

"Well I want to get a pokemon! Except I don't know where to get one, or a pokemon license, or how to raise one." May said, sighing at the end. What was she getting herself into?

"Well that's great May, and don't worry, I can help you figure all the other stuff out."

"Oh thank you so much Ash!" May said excitedly giving Ash a hug. She quickly retreated from the hug however, blushing slightly.

"So when do you want to get your first pokemon?" Ash asked, completely unaware of May's blushing.

"Well as soon as I can I suppose." Said May thoughtfully. Mentally deciding that she was ready for this new responsibility.

"How about tomorrow after school then? You can get registered for your pokemon license right here in Viridian City along with some pokemon food. Then we can go to Professor Oaks Lab in Pallet town to pick out your pokemon!" Ash said. Even he was slightly excited about this, he enjoyed teaching others about pokemon. This also brought back memories of when he had received his first pokemon, Pikachu. While Ash and Pikachu had a rough start they soon became the best of friends, as he was with all his other pokemon.

The two said goodbye and went home, each excited for what the next day would bring.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a sunny fall afternoon in Viridian City; good vibes flowed throughout all of Kanto High. The bells rang signifying the end of another school day, sending many students on their various ways.

Ash made his way out the doors of school and was joined by best buddy.

"Pika Pi!" The electric mouse squeaked as it jumped onto its trainers shoulder. Glad to be reunited with Ash, Pikachu rubbed his head against Ash's, missing him after being stuck in Viridian's Pokemon Day Care all day.

"Hey you were supposed to wait for me to come get you!" Ash said with chuckle. While he was glad to see Pikachu, those at the day care were likely to be worried sick that they lost a Pikachu.

"Well looks like were going to make another stop on our trip." Ash said as he approached the tennis courts. He soon found May sitting on a bench where they had agreed to meet and scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, where else do we have to go?" Asked the brunette, who was both nervous and excited at the same time.

"Well you see… Pikachu kind of escaped out the day care a little early. So we better go let them know that everything's all right." Ash explained with a laugh.

"Well that's not good, you should know better than that." May said to Pikachu. Pikachu however, ignored her and leaped off of Ash's shoulder right into May's lap, obviously excited to meet a new friend.

May, never having held a Pokémon before, began to freak out. Pikachu calmed her nerves though as he put on his cutest face and curled up on her lap.

"It's alright May, Pikachu wouldn't hurt anyone." Ash told her, sensing her momentary anxiety.

The two then decided to get on their way, as there was a lot to be done. After a quick stop at the day care they headed towards the Viridian City Pokémon Center.

Ash and May made general small talk along the way, with Ash explaining the process of what getting a Pokémon is like to May. The two soon entered the Pokémon Center and found Nurse Joy.

Ash, noticing May wasn't exactly sure what to do, took charge of the conversation.

"Good afternoon Nurse Joy! My friend May here is going to get here first Pokémon today, so she'd like to register for a Pokémon license."

"Oh that's great!" Nurse Joy said with a smile. "Just fill out this paper and you'll have your license in no time!"

Once May had returned the form to the Nurse Joy they were told that it would take about fifteen minutes to process everything and print out her license.

"Hey, do want to grab some ice cream or something while we wait?" Asked Ash, who was starving.

"Oh that sounds great!" May replied, also one to never turn down food.

"Awesome, I heard that there's a great place just down the street!" Ash said as the two walked out the door.

The ice cream shop definitely was amazing, more flavors and toppings than you could count. Their eyes lit up as they saw the massive assortment of treats before them. After several minutes of weighing their options Ash went a mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with hot fudge poured over the top, while May went with strawberry and some berries on top.

The two took a seat and scarfed down their ice cream without any hesitation. They didn't even talk or look up until they had each finished their dessert.

Ash and May both finished their ice cream at the same time, they both looked up at each other. Now the two of them weren't the cleanest of eaters so they each began to laugh when they saw their faces covered in ice cream.

"Well we better get on back to the Pokémon Center!" Ash said.

"Once we clean ourselves up first." May said with a giggle. With that the two of them went to the bathroom to wash their faces.

 **Meanwhile:**

"Wow this place looks amazing!" Dawn said as she took in the glorious sight that was ice cream.

"I told you I knew a place." Replied Gary in his swaggerific voice.

Dawn received her ice cream and stood waiting for Gary. The server handed Gary a cone with 6 scoops of ice cream stacked on top.

"You're actually going to eat that?" Dawn asked with a look of shock on her face.

"Of course! They don't call me the ice cream king for nothing!" Gary said with a laugh.

The two headed towards the back of the shop, only to be cut off by a girl exiting the bathroom.

"Oh I'm sorry." May said quickly, not even realizing that it was her best friend Dawn right beside her.

"May what are you doing here?" The blue haired girl asked her friend.

"Oh Dawn its you, I was just…" She answered as Ash walked out of the other bathroom door.

"Well if it isn't the ice cream king himself!" Ash said as he approached the three of them, he'd never seen anyone else eat that much ice cream in one go besides Gary, his ice cream eating skills were some sort of rare talent that only Gary possessed.

"Wait, May are you here with Ash!" Dawn asked in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Does Drew know about this?"

"You aren't cheating on him are you?" Dawn asked intensely.

"Wow, who would of thought, I can see that I've taught you well Ashy." Teased Gary.

"No, no it's not like that!" May said frantically, trying to hide her embarrassment. While May had never pictured her and Ash being a couple, she couldn't deny that he was at least somewhat attractive.

"Ash is just helping me get my Pokémon license today, that's all!" May told her blue haired friend.

"Wait what are you two doing here?" May asked in return.

Dawn tried to hide her blushing but failed miserably, while Gary raised his ice cream in front of his face, trying to hide behind it.

"Are you two out on a date?"

"Maybe…" Dawn answered with a smirk, her cheeks beginning to glow red.

May, knowing how Gary was with girls, returned the favor as she started questioning Dawn.

Meanwhile Ash and Gary were laughing as this whole debacle unfolded in front of them.

Once the two girls settled down the two parties went their separate ways.

"I'll text you about this tonight!" Dawn said sternly, obviously still thinking that something more was going on with May and Ash.

"I was just about to say the same to you." Replied May, hoping that Dawn wouldn't get herself hurt by dating a womanizer like Gary.

Ash and May waved to the couple as they walked out and made their way back to the Pokémon Center.

"Ash, I'm not trying to be rude so don't take it the wrong way, but why are you friends with Gary? From what I've seen he just try's to get girls all the time?" May asked the raven-haired trainer.

"Well me and Gary go way back, we grew up together. Sure he may be a bit cocky but that's just who he is, he makes for a good rival." Ash said with a laugh, all 103 of his consecutive losses to Gary coming to his mind.

"As for how he acts around girls, he just hasn't met the right one yet. It might be hard to believe, but Gary is actually a really caring guy. He really didn't start all of this until after the breakup."

"What breakup?" Asked May, who was finding it hard to picture Gary as a gentleman.

"I can't tell you, sorry. I promised Gary that I wouldn't tell anyone about it, but it really changed him." Ash told her.

"Oh…." May replied, the mood getting a bit somber between the two.

"Never mind that though, let's go get your license!" Ash said as they reached the Pokémon Center. The two ran inside and found Nurse Joy.

"Oh hello again!" Nurse Joy said with her usual smile.

"Everything is all set. Here is your Pokémon license May."

May's eyes light up with excitement as she was handed her official Pokémon license.

"Ahhh, I can't believe I'm actually doing this! I just can't wait to get my first Pokémon!" May exclaimed.

Her eyes stayed glued onto her new license all the way to the Pokémon Market.

"Alright May, since we don't now what type of Pokémon your going to pick yet we'll just get some generic Pokémon food for now. Once you know the type of your Pokémon you can buy type specific food, you can tell the types by the color of the bags. See how the blue bags are for water types, and the yellow ones over here are for electric types." Ash explained.

"Pika Pi!" Pikachu squeaked in excitement. He loved this type of Pokémon food.

"I suppose I need to get some more for Pikachu too." Ash said with a chuckle.

Ash grabbed the two bags and after paying for them, carried them over his shoulder on the way out. Ash's physical strength played a big role here, as each bag was about 50 pounds.

Ash ended up carrying the bags all the way back to Pallet Town, while May couldn't help but try to guess which Pokémon she would be able to choose from. While Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur were the usual Kanto region starter Pokémon, Professor Oak had been studying Pokémon from other regions, making newer Pokémon available to beginner trainers.

"Well there it is!" Ash pointed up to a large building at the top of the hill in front of them.

"This is Professor Oaks Lab, and It's where you'll get your first Pokémon May!"

The two ran up to the front door. Ash dropped the bags of Pokémon Food off to the side and led May inside. Ash had been inside Oak's Lab hundreds of times, and was great friends with Professor Oak himself.

"Hello Professor! Are you here?" Ash shouted. Not hearing an answer, Ash went around to see if he could find the man. While Ash was off searching, May stood in awe of the interior of the building. The whole place was filled with machines and computers, books and pokeballs.

"Ah hello Ash, it's good to see you again! What brings you here?" Oak said as he and Ash rounded the corner back towards May.

"My friend May would like to get here first Pokémon today sir."

"Very well, it's always nice to see new trainers. It's a pleasure to meet you May!" Oak said with a smile as he shook May's hand.

"Any friend of Ash's is a friend of mine, so make yourself at home!"

"Thank you professor, it's great to meet you too. My brother Max has told me all about your works!" May replied. Even she knew that Professor Oak was one of the most famous Pokémon Researchers in history.

"Alright May, I'm sure your excited, as all new trainers are, so I won't keep you waiting. Can I see your Pokémon license?"

May handed the man her license, who examined it thoroughly before returning it.

"Ok, I'll be back in just a moment." The professor told the two before heading into one the back rooms. It was after a minute that he returned, carrying three pokeballs in his hands. He led them over to a table and placed the three balls in front of them.

"Here we go May. These are the three starter Pokémon that you'll be able to choose from. First we have Totodile, the water type Pokémon." Oak said as he released Totodile from the pokeball.

Totodile was certainly an energetic Pokémon as well, as it danced around on the table in front of them.

"Next we have Torchic, the fire type Pokémon."

Out from the pokeball came the small orange chick, with a quiet squeak it jumped right into May's arms.

"Well aren't you a cutey!" May said with a smile, already thinking that she'd made a decision.

"And finally we have Snivy, the grass type Pokémon."

The small green Pokémon surveyed its surroundings, as May looked it over.

"There are your three starters, do you know which one you want to choose May?" Professor Oak asked the girl.

Without any hesitation, May knew which Pokémon was right for her.

"I choose Torchic!" May said. Torchic's face lit up as it danced around and jumped back into May's arms.

"Haha it seems that Torchic has already taken a liking to you." Laughed the professor, who just loved seeing the joy of new trainers faces when they receive their first pokemon.

"You'll need Torchic's pokeball too." Oak said as he handed May the ball.

"Thank you so much professor! I'll make sure to take great care of it!" May was literally bursting with joy as she spoke. She returned Torchic into the pokeball before running over to Ash and giving him a hug.

"Thank you so much for helping me do this Ash. You wouldn't believe how long I've been waiting for this day! Now I can finally say that I have my own Pokémon!" May said during their embrace. After the two broke apart Ash spoke up.

"It's no problem May! Today has been tons of fun! But we better get moving if you want to be home before dark." The day had been moving fairly quickly, sunset would come along pretty soon.

"Ya, plus I can't wait to show everyone else my Torchic!" May said cheerfully as they made their way towards the exit.

"Thanks for helping us Professor Oak!" Ash shouted as the two waved goodbye to the man and walked out the door.

Ash grabbed the bags of Pokémon food when Professor Oak burst out the doors.

"I almost forgot May, here are your pokedex, and pokeballs." He said as he handed them over to her.

"I'm sure I can trust Ash to teach you how to use them. You kids take care now!"

The kids waved goodbye as they made their way down the hill towards the main road.

The journey back to May's home in Pewter City was a rather long haul, the sun having already set by the time they reached Viridian City. The two headed back towards the school where May's car was parked, and after arriving, packed the vehicle full of May's new supplies.

"Ash, are you sure you want to walk all the way back to Pallet Town? You could stay at our house tonight. I wouldn't mind learning more about Pokémon anyways!" May asked, feeling bad that Ash had to walk everywhere. The Ketchum's only had one car, which Delia typically used most days, so Ash had grown accustomed to the walk from school to home.

"As fun as that would be, I don't want to intrude on your family, and they don't even know who I am." Ash replied. While he would rather stay at the Maple's he certainly respected their privacy and didn't want to waltz in uninvited. May's mind also ran through a list of possible consequences. For one, she was bringing a boy home, and her father never seemed to appreciate when Drew had visited in the past. May shook any bad thoughts out of her head; nothing was going to ruin this perfect day.

"It's alright really Ash! My parents won't mind, actually they'd probably love you! Did you forget that you're famous now? Nearly everyone in all of Kanto knows your name Ash!" May said, giggling as she mentioned Ash's newfound fame. At some points throughout the day she did get chills just thinking that she was spending time with a celebrity basically.

While things had slowed done a little bit for Ash, the media would soon be all over him, he was scheduled for an interview on Saturday in Pallet Town, something Ash was nervously awaiting. He was a nobody before the Johto League, now he going to be featured on a region-wide newspaper, as he made it the furthest of all trainers who participated from Kanto.

"Only if you're sure it's ok." Ash answered, a bit more sternly than he had intended.

"Come on Ash, it'll be fun. My brother Max has been talking about you all week."

Ash finally gave in and got into the passenger seat, while Pikachu hopped in the back.

By this time mostly everyone was settled in for the night, so they only saw an occasional car or passerby every couple minutes. May maneuvered the car around the streets of Viridian City, the huge grin she'd had all day still on her face.

As Ash stared out the window the view of the city turned dark and eerie as they passed through the Viridian Forest. The forest was generally safe during the day, and was a great spot for Pokémon training and catching. During dark hours though the forest is usually pretty dangerous, enough that the city was eventually planning to enclose the forest with gates so that no one could enter at night.

Ash eyed the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of some Pokémon, as many nocturnal Pokémon lived in the area. Ash caught a glimpse of a white light before his attention was turned back to the car.

Pop!

The car started vibrating strangely, while a strange noise came from the back.

"Oh no!" May cried. Hoping her car wouldn't die on her.

"Let's stop and check it out." Ash said. May pulled onto to a side road before bringing the car to a stop on the edge of the road. After some investigation, they found one of the back tires to be nearly completely flat.

"Do you know if you've got a spare tire in the trunk May?" Ash asked. He'd changed flat tires several times before on his mother's car, so Ash was in no panic. May was in the opposite state at the moment. For one thing, she didn't like being anywhere near a spooky forest at night, and after frantically searching, no spare tire was found.

"Looks like we'll just have to call someone to come get us." Ash said after examining their current predicament. May called her father Norman, who said he'd be there as soon as he could.

"We can just play with our Pokémon while we wait!" Ash suggested. May calmed her fears and sat on the side of the road next to Ash. She let out Torchic from its pokeball and watched as it ran around playing with Pikachu.

The sky was perfectly clear, the stars and moon lit shining brightly. The two of them surveyed the sky as they talked.

"So what do you want to do with your Torchic May? Battling or contests?" Ash asked her.

"Well honestly I just wanted one as a pet, I don't think I'd be able to actually do anything with it." May answered.

"That's cool, Pikachu was my first Pokémon, now he's my best friend. I get the feeling that you and Torchic will be the same way!" Ash said as he twitched his head to the right, thinking he saw something.

"Hey Ash, can I ask you something?" May asked as she began blushing.

"Yeah, what's up? Ash replied, curious as to what May wanted to know.

"Have you ever…"

"PIKAAA!"

"TORRR!"

The screams of the two Pokémon made them both jump. Floating before them was a Haunter that had appeared out of nowhere. Pikachu and Torchic were completely spooked. Pikachu ran back towards Ash, but Torchic took off running into the forest.

"Torchic no! Wait!" May yelled. Ash, May, and Pikachu took of past the Haunter after Torchic, while the wild Haunter followed them from behind.

"Torchic! Where are you Torchic?"

"Pika Pika!"

Before they even realized it, the three were in the middle of the forest.

"Uh oh, May we shouldn't be in here at night. You go back to the car it's dangerous out here, I'll find Torchic." Ash told her.

"No Ash! Torchic is my Pokémon, and frankly I have no idea where the car is." May retorted.

It was true, they were completely lost.

"Hm, alright but let's stick together, watch out for any wild Pokémon." Ash warned her. The darkness of the forest didn't help at all, as the trees blocked out the night sky.

The party continued to search the surrounding area. The whole forest was silent, not a single Pokémon in sight. In the corner her eye, May saw a bush off to the side rustling, so she went over to look.

"AHHHH!" She yelled. From the bush a Beedrill flew up, obviously not happy about being disturbed.

"May Run!" Ash yelled as they turned and sprinted deeper into the forest. They weaved and darted around the trees, hoping to lose the Beedrill.

Ash jumped behind a tree and grabbed May, pulling her next to him. The Beedrill could be heard in the distance, but after a minute the buzzing was out of range.

"Thank God! That was…" Before May could finish Ash had covered her mouth with his hand. Ash then pointed up at the other trees in the area. They were all filled with sleeping Beedrill. Ash slowly lead May out of the area into a little opening near a pond.

"We should be safe now." Ash said, trying to regain his breath.

"Ash where's Pikachu?" May asked, causing Ash to jump right back to his feet.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled. Ash was about to yell again but was then cut off by May's hand.

"Ash those Beedrill are still close by!" She whispered. Ash realized his mistake and waited a minute before moving, just to make sure that the Beedrill didn't wake up.

The silence of the forest continued as they began searching again.

Nearly 30 more minutes of searching later, they had found their way back to the small pond. Pikachu and Torchic were nowhere to be found. May sat down and took a short rest; while Ash paced around try to formulate a plan to find them. He returned to find May huddled together, her head in her knees.

"Are you alright May?" He asked her. May looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy with tears streaming down her face.

"No, this is all my fault! Now Torchic and Pikachu are gone." She managed to get out before sobbing again. Ash got down and wrapped her in his arms.

"This isn't your fault May, Torchic and Pikachu will be fine. Come on, the quicker we find them the quicker you'll feel better." Ash helped her onto her feet and let her regain her composure. After wiping away her tears, May nodded to Ash, signaling that she was ready to keep looking.

 **Back On The Road**

It had been nearly an hour since May had called, and she was nowhere to be found. Now Norman Maple watched as Officer Jenny called for backup to make up a search party, worried that the kids were lost in the forest. Once several other officers had arrived they entered the forest, keeping a close watch for any clues.

 **In The Woods**

"Torchic there you are!" Ash said. The small Pokémon had just emerged from a nearby bush. May ran up and picked up Torchic, hugging it tightly.

"Thank goodness your ok! Let's get you back in your pokeball where you'll be safe."

May put Torchic in the pokeball, then the ball rolled out her hand onto the grass, it rolled several times, until Torchic reappeared outside again.

"Um, did I do something wrong Ash?" May asked, confused as to why Torchic didn't go back in its pokeball. Ash however was just as confused as May was.

"May, I don't think that's your Torchic. That only happens when you're catching a wild Pokémon." Just then the Torchic ran and jumped back into the bush it came from. Ash and May ran over. Behind the bush they found the Torchic and two Pikachu's.

All three of the Pokémon looked up at the two of them, Torchic jumped into May's arms, while Pikachu jumped back onto Ash's shoulder, each happy to see their owner.

"Finally we found you guys, you're safe now." Ash told the Pokémon.

"Hey Ash, where did that other Pikachu go?" May asked in a confused tone of voice. Ash looked back to the ground only to find another Torchic.

"Maybe it ran off?" Ash guessed as they looked backwards to see if they could find it. What they did find however was that the Pikachu had returned and the other Torchic had vanished.

"What the! Something weird is going on here May. I think we should get out of here." Ash said, who wasn't usually one to get scared, but this time even he was getting somewhat creeped out.

The other Pikachu looked around as if it sensed something, then began to glow. It turned into a small purple blob on the forest floor.

"A Ditto! That's what was playing tricks on us!" Ash exclaimed.

"Is that a Pokémon?" May asked, not sure of what she had just witnessed.

"Yup, Ditto's can transform into any nearby Pokémon and gain it's ability's." Ash explained to her.

"Wow, so that's why we were seeing double of Pikachu and Torchic." May said.

"Come on, lets get out of here now. We'll find the nearest road and work our way back from there." Ash said as he led the way.

 **30 Minutes Later**

"Thank God your alright May, I was so worried about you." Norman said as he hugged his daughter. Ash and may had eventually found their way back to the car only to come across a whole police squad who happened to be searching for them.

"The only reason I'm okay is because Ash was with me, without him I never would have stood a chance in there." She told her father.

Norman looked up to see Ash standing several yards away. He walked over and shook his hand.

"You must be Ash Ketchum! Thanks for keeping my daughter safe, and it's quite an honor to meet you! Why didn't you tell me you were friends with this boy May? Your welcome to come to our home for the night, its my way of saying thanks for helping May."

Norman had May's car towed away to be repaired, so he drove the two of them back to Pewter City. Norman was a big fan of Pokémon, and Pokémon battling. During his youth he was a formidable trainer in the Hoenn region, where he grew up. The whole length of the ride back felt like an interview to Ash, as Norman asked numerous questions about his training and his experience in the Johto League. Ash happily answered all his questions; he did need some practice before his interview on Saturday anyways.

After some time they arrived at the Maple household. It was your average Pewter City home, just on the outside of the city where the city meets the country. Norman parked the car in the garage and led the kids inside. The door led through a small laundry room and finally into their basement. After climbing a set of stairs they emerged in a hallway that led to the kitchen.

"Carolyn and Max are already asleep, and I'm pretty tired too, I'll see you kids in the morning. There's some leftover dinner in the refrigerator. First thing in the morning I want to see your new Pokémon May!" Norman said, before biding them goodnight, and heading upstairs.

May lead Ash into the living room that consisted of a couch, coffee table, a large TV in the corner of the room, and many family photos that hung around the room.

"Your house is amazing May!" Ash said, while he knew this was a fairly normal house, it was certainly much nicer than his.

"Oh this is nothing, my cousins house is so much nicer." May said, wondering why Ash thought her house was so cool. Ash and May both sat down on the couch, finally having an opportunity to relax.

"So how to I use this pokedex thing?" May asked as she pulled the pokedex from her pocket.

" That can give you information on any Pokémon, here I'll show you." As took the pokedex and aimed it at Pikachu before pressing a button. The pokedex spoke aloud, giving a brief description of Pikachu.

"This will come in handy if you ever come across any new Pokémon." Ash explained.

May turned on the TV, but continued to play around with her pokedex, using it on Torchic as well.

On the TV were reruns of the Johto League Championships. Ash felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him as he recalled his battles in those very stadiums.

"These are battles from the Johto League, right?" May asked as Torchic, who was tired from the long day, curled up against May on the couch.

"Yup, it feels like I was there just yesterday." Ash said, a somber look growing on his face.

"Everything ok Ash?" May said, noticing the look on his face.

"Of course, I just miss battling, I can waited to get started in the Indigo League!" Ash said, feeling a burst of motivation.

"Well I think you've got a pretty good shot at winning! I'm sure all of Kanto agrees!" May told him. Despite just getting to know him over a few days, she really felt proud of what Ash had accomplished.

"I almost forgot, Dad said there was some leftover food in the kitchen, I'll grab some if you want." Ash nodded, he hadn't eaten since being at the ice cream store. Even that felt like it was days ago; today had been very eventful for the two of them.

May got up and went to the kitchen and searched the refrigerator for some food. She grabbed a plate and set it on the table. As she closed the door a small buzzing came from her pocket. She pulled out her phone, wondering who would be calling her so late. It was Drew. She motioned for Ash to come grab the food before answering the phone.

"Oh hey Drew, why are you calling me so late?" May rounded the corner towards the laundry room. Drew had called because May hadn't texted him all day. May always thought that Drew seemed to be rather clingy, or maybe it was because he was always full of himself. Drew's cockiness was the one thing she never really liked about him, as he wasn't really all that he claimed to be.

While that may be the case it still is pretty normal for couples to text everyday, so May could understand why Drew might have been worried. She then told Drew about the days events, leaving out any mention of Ash, as she was sure that Drew wouldn't appreciate her hanging around another guy.

Meanwhile Ash had entered the kitchen to grab the plate of food on the table. He could hear a faint echo of May talking, but after a minute the quiet speech turned into loud shouting.

"Why In the world would you get one of those? There worthless and a waste of time, plus how can we hang out if your taking care of that stupid thing!" Drew was not happy that May had gotten a Pokémon, more so that she did it without his permission. Drew hated Pokémon. While he didn't usually mind them, he thought the whole idea of training and battling them was pointless and something childish.

Ash listened closely, picking up on some parts of their conversation.

"Well frankly, I don't really care what you think about it Drew! It's my choice and no one can tell me what I can or can't do!" With that May hung up on Drew, both of them being very upset.

 **Drew's House**

"Great, now I'm going to have to fix this all tomorrow." Drew said with a sigh, even he realized that he had gone a little overboard.

"She's getting to be bit too much work for me." Drew thought to himself, as he began questioning whether their relationship was actually worth it or not.

"Everything all right Drew?" Asked Hilda, a fellow classmate from school.

"It's nothing, just May. We got into a little disagreement." Drew explained.

"Perfect, I keep telling you that you should dump her, I don't know what you see in her. Let's forget about her for the moment, now where were we?" Hilda asked teasingly, as she took Drew's hand and pulled him in for another make-out session.

 **Back at the Maple Household.**

"Ugh, he just irritates me so much sometimes!" May said out loud. She then walked back into the kitchen, to find Ash standing near the table.

May then realized just how loud she had been shouting earlier, realizing that Ash had to have heard some of it.

"S-Sorry about that." May said, trying to hide her embarrassment. Ash noticed this and pretended like he didn't hear a thing. Ash put May out of her uncomfortable misery by suggesting that they eat. So the two split the leftover meal, each trying to think of something to say. After finishing the whole plate, the silence was broken by the two of them yawning simultaneously. It had been a long day, and they were both ready for some rest.

May gave Ash some blankets, as he decided to sleep on the couch for the night. The two said goodnight as May headed up the stairs. She reached her room and started changing her clothes when her phone buzzed once again. It was text from Dawn.

"So how's boyfriend #2?" It read.

May sighed and answered back "We'll talk about this later."

Downstairs Pikachu had curled up beside Ash on the couch.

"Goodnight buddy, we got to be ready for our next battle tomorrow!" Ash said as he petted Pikachu's head.

"Pika!" The yellow mouse squeaked. With that the two of them closed their eyes and went to sleep.

 **The next Morning**

Ash woke up to the sound of May walking down the stairs.

"Good morning Ash." The two exchanged greetings before getting up and readying themselves for the day. After getting dressed they both sat down for some breakfast in the kitchen. As the two of them ate their cereal, Max emerged from his bedroom.

Still being rather sleepy, Max didn't even notice Ash was there until he had poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down.

Max nearly spit the cereal out of his mouth when he recognized the boy sitting next to him.

"Holy crap, your Ash Ketchum!" He said, as Ash and May just laughed.

"I've seen all your battles from the Johto League! You were so awesome!" Max said, as he finally met his new idol. He dashed of back to his room before coming back with a fake pokeball, and asked Ash to sign it.

"I don't have any Pokémon yet, but when I get one I'm going to become a trainer just as strong as you are!" Max said. The rest of breakfast was filled with discussions about various battling techniques between Ash and May. May smirked as she watched the two of them; she had never seen someone who could actually handle Max's overly excitable personality.

It wasn't long before Dawn's car pulled up in the Maple's driveway; she had agreed to pick them up, instead of the three of them having to walk all the way to Viridian City.

Dawn's eyes glared back and forth between Ash and May, when she realized that he was still with May. She gave May an "I told you so" kind of smirk as they got in the car, while May rolled her eyes and shut the door.

They four soon arrived at Kanto high and went off their separate ways for their first class of the day.

After first period, Ash noticed a notification on his phone, which was a text from May. The two of them had exchanged phone numbers the night before, in case May ever needed any help with Torchic. Ash threw his books in his locker and read the message.

"Hey Ash! Dawn and I are going to go watch the soccer game on Friday, just wanted to know if you wanted to join us? :)"


	3. Chapter 3

"This will be a one on one battle between Ash and Richie. Let the battle begin!"

The second round of Kanto High's Pokémon tournament was nearly over, as Ash was in the final battle of the day. Gary Oak had already finished his match, winning a very close two on two battle. Now Kanto High's two most highly regarded Pokémon trainers were about to battle it out.

"Let's go Sparky!" Richie's Pikachu materialized onto the field from its pokeball, sending tiny sparks from its red cheeks.

Ash's biggest type disadvantage was against electric types. Froakie, Staraptor, and Charizard all were weak against electric attacks. Ash also didn't want to use Pikachu, as the previous night had been pretty taxing on the both of them.

"Ok Bulbasaur, c'mon out!" This was Ash's first real battle with Bulbasaur, aside from some practice battles in training. But regardless, Ash thought Bulbasaur was a strong Pokémon who had a great shot at winning this battle.

"Sparky use Double Team! Richie said, hoping to confuse Bulbasaur right from the start. In a matter of seconds Bulbasaur was surrounded by many fake Pikachu's, the real one being off to the left.

Ash smirked with confidence; Bulbasaur was the perfect Pokémon to defend against this.

"Use Vine Whip and Spin!"

Bulbasur used its vine whip while spinning around in a circle, its vines flying through every single Pikachu, the real one being sent tumbling back towards its trainer.

"Ah, Sparky are you alright?" Richie asked, reminding himself that Ash was a top trainer, with lots of strategies that he had likely never seen before.

"Tackle attack!"

Richie looked up from Pikachu to see Bulbasaur charging straight towards them.

"Quick Sparky, use Electro Ball!" Pikachu jumped up and sent a ball of electricity flying towards Bulbasaur.

"Dodge it with Vine Whip Bulbasaur!" Ash yelled. Bulbasaur, confused as to what Ash meant, tried to swat the ball away, only to be sent flying back, rolling over in front of Ash. This is where their lack of chemistry had turned against them, Ash was hoping that Bulbasaur would use its vine whip to jump straight up, where he would then dodge the attack and launch one of his own.

Despite the damage that Bulbasaur had taken, Ash still wasn't worried; this match was far from over.

"Quick Attack Sparky!" Richie's Pikachu came flying in at such a high speed that Bulbasaur had no time to react.

"Wow that's fast! Ash said as Bulbasaur took another direct hit. That was much quicker than his own Pikachu's quick attack or any other Pokémon he'd seen for that matter. Then it clicked into Ash's mind. With a smirk, and a turn of his hat, Ash knew how to end this battle now.

"Use Vine Whip and draw it in close!"

Bulbasaur surrounded Pikachu with its vine whips, leaving forward as the only direction for Pikachu to go. Richie then ordered Sparky to use another quick attack, which if it connected fully, might win the battle for them. Ash had other plans however.

"Quick hit it with a Leech Seed!" Ash shouted, Bulbasaur barely managed to get it off on time, but it stopped Pikachu right in its tracks, surrounding it in vines and zapping its energy.

"Now use Vine Whip and throw it in the air!" Ash said, as Bulbasaur continued to perfectly execute this combination of moves. Sparky, who was still losing energy from the leaf seed, was launched into the air before tacking on several more attacks.

"Now Razor Leaf!" The Leech seed finally wore off, but Richie's Pokémon was immediately hit by flurry of leaves from Bulbasaur.

As Sparky fell to the ground, Bulbasaur already knew what Ash was going to call next and had begun storing energy. Before Pikachu even had a chance to recover, Ash called out the final blow.

"Solar Beam!"

Bulbasaur fired the Solar Beam, directly hitting the Pikachu, sending it flying into Richie's arms. The force of the attack was so strong that just catching Pikachu sent Richie tumbling backwards onto the ground.

"You did great Sparky, now take a good rest." Richie told his fainted Pokémon as he returned it to its pokeball.

"Nice work Bulbasaur!" Ash said as he recalled it to its pokeball, before running across the field.

Richie looked up to see Ash's hand extended out in front of him. After being helped to his feet they shook hands.

"Wow Ash, that combination at the end there was incredible, I've definitely learned a lot from this battle, thanks a lot!"

"Thanks a lot Richie! Frankly I'm not even sure how I came up with that, it just popped into my head!" Ash said as the two shared a laugh.

"That Electro Ball attack was really awesome, I've never seen that before! You're definitely going to have to teach me and Pikachu how to use that sometime." Ash said.

"Of course, sometime we'll have to get together to train and battle again." Richie said.

The two boys each felt a lot of respect for one another. Ash was sort of a mentor for Richie. The two had battled in the past, and Richie knew that Ash was a top-notch trainer.

While Richie had only been battling for a shorter period of time, he was still a great trainer, and Ash could tell that. Not only from their battles, but just by seeing the relationships that Richie had with his Pokémon, Ash knew that Richie was bound to be successful.

"That's it! The winner is Ash Ketchum!" Tracy said, as Richie grabbed Ash's hand and held up over his head, like a boxing referee does when the winner of the fight is announced. Everyone watching cheered for Ash, once again they were in awe of his battling styles.

"Next week is the final four! That consists of Winston, Morrison, Gary, and our latest winner Ash! See you all next Tuesday!" Tracy concluded, before everyone mobbed Ash again.

A glimpse of a scarlet red bandana revealed itself from behind the bleachers. May Maple stood there with a smile on her face. She was happy for Ash; he really deserved all of this. After everyone over looking him because of his shyness, people were finally realizing how great of a person he really was.

May had been watching Drew's and Gary's soccer practice, as her and Drew were going to meet up afterwards to sort out their issues from the previous night. However she got bored and snuck off. She bumped into some people who were running over to watch Ash and Richie's battle, so she followed them over. She certainly had more fun watching Ash battle than watching Drew's practice, something she never would have thought she'd say.

May decided that she should probably head back, and started walking back towards the soccer fields.

On her way she nearly got ran over by Dawn, who was speeding through the parking lot.

"What are you doing in the middle of the road May jeez!" Dawn yelled out the window.

"What you still doing here even?" May answered back.

"Um, I'm waiting for my boyfriend to get done with practice, and which boyfriend are you hanging out with today?" Dawn replied.

"The only boyfriend I have Dawn. Drew. D-R-E-W." She said, literally spelling Drew's name out for Dawn.

"Alright, I'll let you off easy today. Now let's go watch the rest of their practice!" Dawn said as she got out of her car and joined May.

 **On The Road To Pallet Town**

"48… 49…. 50!" Ash grunted as he finished a set of pushups. Ash was pumped after his battle and was in the middle of an impromptu workout on his walk home.

"Let's run the rest of the way back Pikachu, we've got to stay in shape for the Indigo League!" The small rodent nodded and took off ahead of Ash, while Ash followed a short distance behind. As Ash began running his mind became clouded with many thoughts about the Indigo League. After this weekend he would be able to start challenging the gym leaders, and the final tournament happening over the next summer. While Ash was certainly excited about it, he also felt a large amount of pressure on his shoulders. Everyone was looking up to him now, and would certainly be expecting a lot of him this time. Ash pushed these worries out of his head and focused on his running, only to realize that he had just reached home.

"Hello Ash! How was your day?" His mother Delia asked as he walked in the door.

"Pretty good mom!" Ash said, his whole week so far had been rather exciting.

"That's great dear! I was told that the people who are going to be interviewing you on Saturday are going to be here around noon, so make sure your ready by then!" Delia said with a smile.

"Awesome, thanks mom. I think I'm going to go out back with the Pokémon for a little while. Then I'll come back and help with dinner." Ash said as he dropped his backpack and went outside again.

Ash spent the next half hour playing with his various Pokémon and getting prepped for his first gym battle, which would be in just a little over a week if everything went right. Since Ash lived in Kanto, he knew a lot about the gyms and gym leaders, and which types of Pokémon they used.

"Alright, so the first gym is a rock type gym in Pewter City." Ash said to himself as he tried to decide which Pokémon would be best.

"Assuming it's a three against three, Froakie, Bulbasaur, and maybe Pikachu or Charizard would be best".

After several more minutes, he went back inside and helped Delia make dinner, the two of them spending the rest of the night relaxing.

 **At Kanto High**

"Sorry I guess…"

"What do you mean, I guess?" May said very accusingly. Her and Drew's initially calm discussion had soon turned into heated debate, while Dawn and Gary stood waiting, each of them feeling a slight sense of awkwardness being in their current situation.

"I mean that I barely have any time to be with you as it is, and if your taking care of that orange pigeon then there won't be any time!" Drew said, who was reaching his breaking point.

"It's me or the Pokémon May, you've got till next week to decide. Now I'm going home." Drew said as he turned around and walked away.

May was speechless. She knew that Drew was mad, but not this mad. Now she was faced with tough decision, her boyfriend or her new Pokémon. Tears began to well up in her eyes. A hand soon fell on her shoulder, causing her tear filled eyes to look up. To her surprise it wasn't Dawn who had come over, but Gary.

"Forget that guy May, I've seen my fair share of assholes, heck I was even an asshole at one point, but that guy is unbelievable." Gary said to her. While Drew was usually nice around May, he was generally the opposite around anyone else. Gary knew this better than anyone since he and Drew played on the same soccer team. Drew was often cocky, acting as if he was a superstar. While he was very talented, his lack of sportsmanship and ignorance was his downfall.

Hearing Gary's words was tough for May to hear. Drew had always been so nice around her; she'd never seen him like this before. While they only had been dating for a little over a month, May had thought that she'd knew Drew pretty well.

"Come on May, Gary's going to show me his grandpa's laboratory in Pallet Town, why don't you come along." Dawn suggested, hoping that she'd be able to cheer May up on the car ride over. May agreed and followed them to Gary's car.

The whole drive to Pallet Town was totally silent, both Gary and Dawn not knowing what to say to May, she was going to be hurt either way. She either had to lose her boyfriend, or her Torchic. Even though she only had Torchic for one day the two of them had already bonded a lot.

Torchic was the only thing that May could think of when they arrived at the Oak's lab. Professor Oak wasn't around, but Gary knew the place like the back of his hand and showed them around.

"Well Ash, similar to what you did for the Johto league, you just need to go to any Pokémon center and give them your pokedex." Professor Oak told Ash. Ash had seen him walking back towards the lab and had gone to ask him what he needed to do to register for the Indigo League. The two ended up talking until they reached the laboratory.

"Hmmm, Gary must be here, the lights were off when I left. He's been hanging around the Pokémon here a lot lately Ash. I think he'd enjoy if you taught him a couple things about battling." Oak suggested as they walked in.

"Why hello kids! The professor said as he noticed the group inside.

"Hey gramps! Hope you don't mind me giving tours to some of my friends." Gary replied.

"Of course not! Make yourselves at home everyone! Ah yes May, how's your Torchic doing?" Oak asked.

May's expression visibly saddened, but she put on a fake smile and forced her way through it.

"Just great! We've really been getting along."

"Well isn't that nice. Ah yes, Gary I was talking to Ash here on my walk back. I told him how you've been working with the Pokémon here more often. I'm not sure what you kids had planned for the rest of the night, but I thought it'd be nice if Ash taught you a couple things about battling, since you seem to enjoy Pokémon so much." The man suggested, a smirk coming to Gary's face.

"Alright, maybe he can teach me how to lose, since he seems to be so good at that." Gary said playfully.

"Haha it's on Gary!" Ash said with a look of determination.

Everyone went outside, as the backyard of the Oak's laboratory had a large field where all of the Pokémon stayed.

"One on One Ashy?" Gary said, waiting to show Ash his newest Pokémon.

"Fine by me! We're bound to meet up at the schools Pokémon tournament, so I could use a good warm-up!" Ash shouted back, ready to get his first win against Gary.

Gary simply laughed at Ash's words and tossed out his pokeball, revealing a Bulbasaur.

"A Bulbasaur?" Ash asked in surprise, Gary had always used Mudkip in the past, aside from the occasional times where he borrowed one of Professor Oaks Pokémon.

"Yup, caught this sucker last week." Gary said.

"You ready to go Pikachu?" Ash looked down to see is yellow friend shaking his head, and take off towards to the middle of the field.

"Let's get this started, Vine Whip!" Gary yelled as the exhibition match began.

"Use Double Team to dodge it!" Pikachu then surrounded Gary's Bulbasaur, causing it look around frantically.

"Oh come on Ash, even I expect better from you, Vine Whip and Spin!" Gary said, really trying to mess with Ash.

Bulbasaur's vines flew in a circle, knocking Pikachu back into one of the few trees that stood nearby.

"Ah Pikachu! Can you get up?" Ash asked as the yellow mouse struggled to its feet.

"Tackle it Bulbasur!" Gary commanded.

"Quick dodge it Pikachu!" Ash shouted as Bulbasaur closed the distance between itself and Pikachu.

Pikachu dodged the attack, but only by an inch. In any normal battle, Pikachu would have been out the way seconds ago, but something wasn't right. Ash picked up on this right away. Pikachu was limping.

"Stop!" Ash shouted as he sprinted over to Pikachu, as did the others. As Ash grazed over Pikachu's injured leg, the Pokémon squealed in pain and even let some electric sparks out from its cheeks.

"That doesn't look good Ash, let's get Pikachu to a Pokémon Center, right away!" Professor Oak said.

It was only a minute later that the Professor had pulled up in his van, where everyone pilled inside.

"Your going to be alright Pikachu, just hold on." Ash said, trying to comfort both his Pokémon and himself. They ended up driving back to Viridian City, mainly because Pallet Town didn't have its own Pokémon center.

After rushing Pikachu inside, Nurse Joy took Pikachu inside the back room, and went to work on Pikachu's injury. Meanwhile Ash and the others sat out in the waiting room. By this time it was getting late, and knowing that Pikachu wasn't in any real danger some of the group decide to leave. Professor Oak still needing to finish up some research, and Dawn needing Gary to drive her home. May was about to go with them, until she noticed Ash still sitting on the seat still. She saw the worry and sadness on his face, and couldn't bear to leave him alone at a time like this.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to stay and wait with Ash. See you guys at the game tomorrow!" May said goodbye to the others and went back and took a seat next to Ash.

"Don't worry Ash, Pikachu's going to be fine." May said softly, interlocking her fingers with Ash's. She looked up into Ash's downcast face, noticing a lone tear streaming down his face. May's heart broke at the sight of it, Ash loved his Pikachu and couldn't stand to see him hurt or in pain. Even May felt tears beginning to form in her eyes, but these quickly went away when Nurse Joy's voice could be heard from across the room.

"We've done all that we can Ash, Pikachu will be alright, it's just…." Nurse Joy struggled to find the words, noticing the worry on both of their faces. She led them back to a room in the back, where Pikachu was sleeping on a bed, a bandage wrapped around it's leg.

"Pikachu's leg was severely damaged, it will heal fine but it will take some time."

A short glimpse of a smile formed on Ash's face as he stood by Pikachu, stroking the Pokémon's fuzzy ears.

"How long will it take?" May asked.

"Well Pikachu should be able to walk again in about a month, but it will be around two months before he's back to 100%."

"2 Months! That's such a long time". May gasped. Ash looked up to Nurse Joy and smiled.

"2 Months is nothing, even if it was two years I'd help him all the way back. Thank you so much Nurse Joy for everything. Now what's the best plan for Pikachu?" Ash asked, feeling a large sense of relief that Pikachu would fully heal in due time.

"Well the first few weeks Pikachu really shouldn't be moving much at all. I'd advise bringing Pikachu in for a check up each week, then from there we can decide the best course of action." Joy explained to them.

"I'd also advise that Pikachu stays here for at least another full 24 hours."

"That's fine. If that's the case, could I get a room to stay in for the night?" Ash asked having no intention whatsoever of going to school the next day, not if it meant being away from his injured best friend.

"Of course, let's go back to the lobby and I'll grab you a room key." Nurse Joy said as they walked back out. After giving Ash his room key, they said goodnight to Nurse Joy.

"So are you going to head home now May?" Ash asked.

"Oh, well, I actually rode with Gary and Dawn, so I don't really have a way home." May said with a laugh, as she just now realized her current situation.

"Oh wow, well you can stay with me tonight if you want, there are two beds in most rooms anyways. That and you did let me stay with you before, so now it's my time to return the favor." Ash said with a laugh.

"Well thanks, I'll just have Max bring my backpack to school for me tomorrow, and I better call my parents and let them know what's up, they're probably wondering where I am." May asked, thankful that Ash had been so kind to her.

The two then found their room, which contained a bed and a desk on each side of the room. They each settled in their beds, both of them ready for a good rest after this long day.

"Hey May." Ash whispered from across the room.

"What's up Ash?" May asked.

"Thanks for staying with me earlier, I was just so worried about Pikachu before." He explained.

"It was nothing Ash. In fact, I should be the one thanking you. You've taught me what it really means to be one with your Pokémon and a true friend. Someday me and Torchic will reach that same point, I promise!" May said, determined to grow more with Torchic.

"That's great May, I'm sure you and Torchic will be great together." Ash said, trying to encourage May. May instantly sat up in realization, she had completely forgot about her argument with Drew over Torchic until now, thanks in part to the rest of the day's chaos. She debated telling Ash about this but eventually decided against it, as she didn't want to bother him with her love life troubles. She then laid back down and went to sleep.

May woke up the next morning to find Ash missing from the room. She guessed that he had gone off to visit Pikachu, so she spent some time getting ready for the day. As she walked out of room ready to head to school, she noticed Ash waving to her from one of the booths.

"I figured you'd be up pretty soon, so I ordered some breakfast for you too, dig in!" Ash said as May noticed the second plate of food on the table. After finishing eating, May figured that she'd better get to school, or else she'd be late again.

"Are you really going to stay here all day Ash?" May asked him.

"For awhile yes, but I need to take care of my other Pokémon too. Hey, I'll see you later at the soccer game tonight. I can't sit in here forever haha." Ash said, still keeping his promise of joining May and Dawn for Kanto High's soccer game. He was pretty excited for it too. Ash hadn't been to any of Gary's games yet, so he really wanted to go to one.

"Oh great! And don't worry, I'll take notes for you in the classes that we both have." May said with a smile, before grabbing her stuff and walking out.

 **In Pallet Town**

"Alright, looks like your going to be filling in for Pikachu for a while Cyndaquil!" Ash had been explaining what happened to Pikachu to the rest of his Pokémon. He then had all of his Pokémon go through a long training session, before doing a workout of his own. Working out had always helped Ash clear his mind when he was stressed, so he didn't hold back this time. After a three-mile run he refused to let himself go back too Viridian City before completing at least two hundred pushups. While the pushups only took him about fifteen minutes, it took him much longer to walk to Viridian than usual, seeing as how exhausted he was.

Once Ash arrived in Viridian once again, he got lunch at the Pokémon center and stayed by Pikachu for another hour. Needing to take a stretch from sitting, Ash strolled around the town, wandering aimlessly as he enjoyed the fresh fall air. Eventually finding his way to a nearby park, Ash sat down on a swing and let himself relax as he swung back and forth. Ash had been gone from the Pokémon center for several hours, so he could tell that school was finished by amounts of teenagers that soon started walking past, many of which recognizing him and waving at him.

 **Later That Night**

Ash meet up with May and Dawn in the parking lot outside the soccer fields before going to find a good spot in the stands. It was only a matter of minutes before Kanto High's first home soccer game of the year would begin.

"Welcome to the Kanto Dragons first home soccer match against the Fuchsia City Haunters!" The announcers said as the voice echoed around the whole area.

"The Haunters are always a top team who are off to a 2-0 start, while Kanto Dragons are just 1-0 coming off their win in Pewter City! Your starters for the Kanto Dragons include Drew Hayden who is a star player who transferred over from Saffron City. Along with him is Gary Oak, a veteran player for this Viridian team with a very impressive couple of seasons behind him!" The crowd roared as the teams took the field and the game began.

While Fuchsia City had phenomenal defense, the Dragons were able to maneuver around them early on. Gary received the ball just past midfield, and was able to slip past several defenders as he covered the distance towards the right side of the goal. As he near the final two defenders he kicked the ball, lofting it above the defenders heads, while curving it off slightly to the left. As the goalie ran out to try and grab it, a boy came out of nowhere to bounce the ball of his head and into the net.

"An early goal for the Kanto Dragons by Brock Harrison! With an assist by Gary Oak! Gary is now just 10-career assists away from setting the Kanto High record in just his junior year, certainly one of the greatest passers there is!

The crowd was going crazy, as they had taken a 1-0 lead in just the fifth minute. The Dragons dominated the rest of the half as they continued to close in on the goal. Gary continued to place excellent passes, but those receiving them never were able to finish it off with a goal.

"One minute to play in first half!" The announcer said as Gary and the team was making one last push towards the Haunter's defense.

"Another great cross by Gary Oak!"

The ball ended up in a perfect position for Drew, who was able to fake out his defender and get to the ball. After weaving past one more defender he found a good look at the goal and took a shot.

"The Dragons have now taken a two goal lead with a score by Drew Hayden! He set the school record for goals in a season at Saffron last year, and has already recorded his 2nd goal of year here tonight!"

With that the half ended and the commotion died down as the teams went to their huddles. Meanwhile Ash had been having a blast on the sidelines. The excitement of the game had really taken his mind off of Pikachu.

A couple of minutes later, the second half began.

"Another great assist by Gary Oak! He placed the ball perfectly for Drew to take a shot! It's now a three goal lead for the Dragons!" The game was slowly turning into a blowout, as the Dragons continued to shut down Fuchsia City's offense. With just under ten minutes to play the Haunters did manage to sneak in a goal, after a routine save simply slipped out of the Dragon's goalkeepers hands.

"There is the final whistle folks! Your Kanto Dragons have defeated Fuchsia City by a score of 3-1. They improve their record to 2-0 after yet another great showing from Gary Oak and Drew Hayden!

Ash, May, and Dawn made their way out back to the parking lot, waiting to meet up with Gary.

"That was a lot of fun! Thanks for inviting me you guys!" Ash said.

"Of course! We should totally do this again!" May answered.

Once Gary had joined up with them they all went out for dinner at a local restaurant. After dinner May and Dawn said goodbye to the boys as they were going home, while Ash and Gary had to stop at the Pokémon Center and pick up Pikachu before heading back to Pallet Town.

Pikachu's face lit up when he saw his trainer walk through the door. After checking out with Nurse Joy they were able to take Pikachu home.

"Let's get home buddy. We've got to get some sleep before the news station comes to interview us tomorrow."

 **At Drew's House**

May had parked down the street as she approached Drew's house, while Dawn sat waiting in the car. May walked up the front steps and rang the doorbell, hoping to Arceus that Drew would be the one to answer the door. May sighed as she spotted the green haired boy walking down the stairway and opening the door.

"I've decided." May said sternly, giving Drew a hard stare.

"I knew you'd eventually come around. Not sure why you were acting so stupid before." Drew said in his usual cocky tone.

"I didn't choose you, I chose Torchic!" May said loudly, trying to not to scream. Without even waiting to see Drew's reaction, she slammed the door shut and walked back out to the car. May got back into the car with Dawn, trying to stop herself from crying. She had just broken up with her boyfriend, and over something so silly.

"Yah, this is so silly, why was this such a big deal to him anyways." May thought to herself, feeling a little better, considering Drew was the one mostly at fault here.

Once May got back home she was greeted immediately by Torchic, who was happy to see her.

"We're going to be spending a lot more time together now, I promise!" May said as Torchic snuggled against her as they went to sleep.

 **In Pallet Town**

All of Ash's Pokémon were excited to see Pikachu again when they finally reached home. While Gary went back to his house straight away, tired from the match today, Ash stayed outside with all of his Pokémon. As they sat outside playing together, Ash's Froakie had run off from the group, investigating something rustling in the bushes. Ash took notice of this and went over to investigate. In a quick flash something purple shot out of the bush and leaped right over Ash, taking his hat with it, before scampering off towards the nearby river.

"Hey come back!" Ash shouted.

"I don't know what that was, but let's go find out. Staraptor, Froakie, lets go." Ash said as they took of down the same path that the Pokémon had taken.

As they came across the river they found the suspect hanging off the edge of the bridge by its tail.

"What is that?" Ash said as he pulled out his pokedex, having never seen this Pokémon before.

"Aipom, the Long Tail Pokémon. Aipom is able to climb and hang from branches using its powerful tail." The pokedex recited.

"An Aipom! You better give me my hat back!" He shouted, as it continued to hang off the bridge with a cheesy grin on its face. The Aipom then jumped up and ran across the bridge.

"After it Staraptor!" Ash shouted as he climbed up the hill after it. After chasing Aipom in circles for nearly twenty minutes, they finally had it cornered back on the bridge.

"If your not going to return my hat then I challenge you to a battle Aipom!" Ash said to the Pokémon. Who leaped to the center of the bridge and tossed the hat off to the side, ready to battle.

"Alright, Staraptor, you ready to go?"

Staraptor nodded and flew in front of Ash, ready for a good battle.

"Tackle attack!"

Staraptor took off flying towards Aipom, only for Aipom to leap up onto Staraptor's back. Staraptor began freak out and tried shaking Aipom off of its back. In doing so, Staraptor lost track of where it was flying, and flew straight into the side of the bridge.

After falling to the ground, Aipom hit Staraptor with a swift attack, knocking it out cold.

"Ah Staraptor!" Ash said.

"Your turn Froakie!"

Froakie chased after Aipom, only to be completely outrun. Aipom swung across the bridge with its tail whenever Froakie got close. It then started hiding from Froakie. Once Froakie was next to it, Aipom popped up and sent it flying with its tail.

Aipom took of running towards Ash's house while Ash was tending to Froakie.

Ash put both Staraptor and Froakie back in their pokeballs and took off back to the house. He returned to find Aipom on the roof with Bulbasaur and Pikachu sitting below trying to reason with it. Ash sighed as he noticed that Charizard had also been somehow knocked out as well by Aipom.

"This is getting ridiculous Aipom!" Ash yelled as he tried to think of someway to capture it. Ash, not finding anyway to get to Aipom just decided to throw a pokeball at it. Aipom smacked the pokeball right back at Ash with it's tail, hitting Ash in the face and knocking him over. Aipom laughed and continued to dance around on the roof. Even Bulbasaur and Pikachu couldn't help but laugh at Ash's pitiful attempt at catching Aipom. Ash sat up with an embarrassed look on his face, noticing the humor that all the Pokémon had gotten out of that. He was also more determined to redeem himself and capture that Aipom.

Ash ran around back and came charging back with a ladder, which he used to climb the roof. Ash looked around, only to find that Aipom had disappeared.

"You're kidding me, where could it have gone!" Ash said as climbed back down off of the roof.

Bulbasaur had seen where Aipom had gone and used its vine whip to smack a nearby tree. The tree shook and out fell both Aipom and Ash's hat. Aipom, not expecting the fall, completely tumbled to the ground. Now Ash saw his chance and threw another pokeball. To his surprise Aipom actually stayed inside the pokeball, officially being caught.

"Boy, you sure are going to be a tough one to train." Ash said as he picked up the pokeball and returned his hat back to his head.

"Oh man, it's already past midnight!" Ash said as he looked at his watch. He then said goodnight to the rest of his Pokémon, deciding to keep Aipom in its pokeball for the night. He then brought Pikachu inside and got ready for bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Ash's alarm buzzed in the early morning, waking up Pikachu who was curled up in a ball near the end of the bed. Noticing that Ash didn't seem to be waking up, Pikachu sent a small volt of electricity Ash's way, shocking him awake.

"Pika Pika!" The mouse shouted as Ash awoke in a flash.

"Hey what was that for? Oh, my bad buddy." Ash said as he noticed his alarm clock was ringing.

"We got our interview in a couple hours, so I have to myself and you guys ready." Ash said as he picked up Pikachu, and set him on the couch in the other room. After giving him some Pokémon food, Ash went off to take a shower. Meanwhile Delia spent the morning furiously cleaning the place, wanting everything to be perfect for her son's big day.

When Ash emerged from the shower he went outside to see all of his Pokémon. After making sure they all looked fresh he went back inside to have some breakfast.

As noon approached Ash sat patiently waiting, until he heard the vehicle of the news station outside. The news station was called Kanto Now, and would airing his interview several days later.

A man and a woman emerged from the their vehicle, along with a cameraman. After greeting each other and being given a tour of the house. They decided that they would interview Delia first inside the house, and then Ash afterwards outside with his Pokémon. So Ash went out to make sure that his Pokémon were ready while the others were inside.

After about 10 minutes everyone emerged from the house and met back up with Ash in the backyard. After getting some shots of each of Ash's Pokémon, they went ahead and started the actual interviewing.

"Alright Ash, so lets start with the big one. You made it to the top 8 in the Johto League finals. How does it feel to have achieved such an impressive feat?" They asked.

"Well, It feels great to know that all of my Pokémon and I's training had really paid off, and I'm very proud of them all!" Ash replied, smiling at each of his Pokémon as he spoke.

"Now you lost against Tyson, what do you think you could have done differently to change the outcome?"

"Inexperience played a role I think, this was my first every league competition, I made a couple of mistakes down the stretch and I think they cost us. It's been a great learning experience and I couldn't have asked for a better battle!" Ash said as he replayed the match in his mind.

"So now everyone is asking, what's next for you Ash? " The female reporter asked him.

"The Indigo League is my next goal! I'm stronger and more determined than ever, and I wont let this one slip away!" Ash answered. Each of the reporters seemed to be enjoying themselves; Ash was fun to interview and certainly a very talented kid. After answering the some more questions the interview was finished.

"Alright Ash, that was great!" They told him as they each shook his hands.

"And one more thing, would you be interested in having a quick battle for the cameras Ash?"

"Of course!" Ash said always ready for a battle.

"Perfect, now we've got a little surprise for you as to who you'll be facing." They told him. Ash sat their confused, whom would he be battling? Hopefully not Gary…

Ash's question was answered however as a figure rounded the corner and came into sight.

"Tyson!" Ash said as his jaw dropped.

"Long time no see Ash!" Tyson said with a wave of his hand.

" I was passing Viridian City earlier this morning, where they did my interview. After they told me that they were coming here to interview you I knew I had to come visit." He explained.

"That's awesome Tyson, I was wondering when I'd see you again." Ash said.

"So what are you up to now Ash? Tomorrow I'm heading of the Unova region to enter their Pokémon league."

"I'm entering the Indigo League here in Kanto. I've heard Unova is pretty cool, your going to do great there!" Ash said. He'd always wanted to visit some other regions someday, as there were tons of other Pokémon that he'd never seen before.

"So you ready for a battle Ash?"

"You bet Tyson! Let's make it a good one like last time!" Ash said with a fist pump.

"How about on the bridge over there? With it being surrounded by the woods it makes for a great scenery." The reporters suggested. Both Ash and Tyson agreed and headed over.

The reporter soon started talking to the camera as they got into their positions.

"We've got an exciting matchup for you all today. It's a rematch of the Johto League quarterfinals, Ash against Tyson. Last time Tyson narrowly defeated Ash, allowing him to advance to the final four. It will be a one on battle, winner takes all!" She said with enthusiasm.

"Ready Ash?"

"I'm ready when you are!"

"Let's go, Metagross." Tyson's Metagross came out of its pokeball; everyone was impressed by the immense size of it. Tyson had lots of very powerful Pokémon, this one had been really tough for Ash to defeat last time.

Ash retaliated by sending out his Charizard, one of his strongest Pokémon.

"Ok Charizard, use Flamethrower!" Ash commanded.

"Iron Defense Metagross!"

Metagross shielded itself as the flamethrower hit it directly. However Metagross seemed to be untouched by it as its Iron Defense had worked perfectly.

"Zen Headbutt!" Tyson shouted. Metagross came flying forward, slamming straight into Charizard.

"Grab it Charizard!" Ash's said. Charizard grabbed hold of one of Metagross's legs and pulled it to the ground with it.

"Quick now use Seismic Toss!" Charizard got up and pulled Metagross into the air. After reaching a tall enough height, Charizard turn and zoomed straight back to the ground.

"Hyper Beam Metagross!" Yelled Tyson.

"Metagross launched a Hyper Beam attack just in time. Firing it straight into the ground, which caused Charizard to lose most of its speed. Therefore when Metagross hit the ground it only took a minor amount of damage.

"Dragon rage!" Ash said as Charizard sent the attack towards Metagross.

"Quick Metagross, stop it with Hammer Arm!" Metagross meet the attack and again stopped a direct hit from occurring, only taking a little damage.

"Use Confusion!"

Metagross hit Charizard with the attack, stunning Charizard for several seconds.

"Now hit it with Hyper Beam!" Charizard took the full blast of the Hyper Beam and was sent flying backwards.

"Are you alright Charizard?" Ash asked as Charizard managed to struggle to its feet.

"Use Take Down Metagross!" Tyson said, hoping that Charizard would be too tired to react in time. Metagross jumped forward only to be lurched to a halt. Charizard had stopped Metagross and the two were now pushing against each other.

"Flamethrower!"

"Hyper Beam!"

Both Pokémon launched their attacks, each making direct hits with the other. The two of them each managed to regain their footing. Metagross looked tired, but still had a good amount of strength left. Meanwhile Charizard was nearly finished, one more hit and it would be all over.

"There's got to be something I can do." Ash thought to himself.

"Charizard use smokescreen!" In a matter of seconds the whole area became covered in a dark black smoke. No one was able to see anything, the trainers or the Pokémon. Being on a bridge though helped to know at lest the general location of the others.

"Find Metagross and use Seismic Toss again!" Ash said as Charizard flew into the smoke searching for Metagross. Charizard spotted Metagross and caught it off guard, grabbing it and taking to the sky.

"Now Charizard!" Ash said, as Charizard started soaring back towards the ground. When they reached the ground Charizard let go of Metagross, slamming it into the ground. However, Charizard was very weak at this point and didn't have the strength to pull up out of its downward dive completely. This caused Charizard to clip the ground and go tumbling across the ground.

After the cloud of dust that had been sent up had settled, it was revealed the both Pokémon had fainted.

"Well that's that!" Tyson said, as both him and Ash returned their Pokémon to their pokeballs.

"Wow what a match folks! The two battled it out to the very end and the match ended in a tie, truly a fitting ending to a battle between two of the greats!" The reporter lady said to the camera.

"That was a great battle Tyson!" Ash said as they shook hands.

"Thanks Ash! It's safe to say we've both gotten stronger since we last met." Tyson replied.

After being interviewed about the battle. The reporters said their goodbyes, informing them that they'd be airing this later in the week. With that it was also time for Tyson to leave as well.

"Well Ash, as much as I'd like to stay and train with you more, I've got to get going. I have a long journey ahead of me tomorrow." Tyson said.

"Good luck Tyson. Maybe someday we'll meet again. I'll make sure to watch you on TV when the Unova finals come around!" Ash said, hoping this wasn't their final goodbye.

"Haha. And you can bet that I'll be ready to watch you take down the Indigo League! You've got a great chance!"

"Thanks man." Ash said. With a fist bump, the two went their separate ways. Tyson continued on south of Pallet Town while Ash returned home. Ash sat thinking about his battle with Tyson. Despite the tie he was happy about it. More so he was happy to spend more time with Tyson, someone who he really looked up to.

"You did great today Charizard." Ash said to the Pokémon, who was resting beside him.

"Back in the Johto league it took 3 Pokémon to take that Metagross down, while you did it singlehandedly today!" Ash said, a prideful look coming over Charizard's face.

"Ash! Dinner's ready!" Delia called from inside the house.

"Oh man! It's already dinner time." Ash thought, his interview and battle had taken a lot longer than it had felt.

"That news team was really nice don't you think?" Delia asked her son.

"Ya, I was nervous at first but it turned out to be pretty fun!" Ash said while scarfing down his plate of food.

"So when are you going to start collecting new gym badges? I'm surprised you haven't started already, with the Viridian and Pewter City gyms being so close." She asked.

"Oh, I was thinking maybe next weekend I'd start. I wanted to get some extra training in before then." Ash explained.

"Well if you need me to watch over Pikachu while you go I'd be happy too! He is pretty cute anyways!" Delia said, earning a squeak of approval from Pikachu who was resting on the couch.

The next few days went by as usual, Ash's trips to and from school being a bit lonelier without Pikachu by his side. Monday night Ash was finishing some homework assignments that needed to be completed by the next day when he got a text from May.

"Dawn said that there's another home soccer match tomorrow, want to go again?"

"Sure. See you then!" Ash replied, happy that it would work out perfectly with his schedule. He'd have his next Pokémon battle after school, and then he can wait around till the game starts later.

The next morning Ash grabbed his pokeballs and headed out the door, saying goodbye to Pikachu, who was being fed by Delia.

Ash arrived at school and went to his classes, another routine day passing by that was until lunchtime. Ash's whole celebrity status had faded slightly, no longer being mobbed by random fans, but lots of people did try to talk to him now, something Ash was still getting used too. He usually only sat by Gary at lunch, but today Gary said he had to talk to the guys on the soccer team about some stuff, so Ash was all alone today. Ash didn't mind this; it was usually pretty hard to find some privacy in a school anyways. That was until two trays plopped down next to him at his table.

"Hey Ash!" Dawn and May said in unison as they sat down next to him.

"Oh hey girls." Ash said.

"Not trying to sound rude, but what are you two doing here?" Ash asked them.

"Wet thought that we'd come give you some company, since it doesn't look like Gary's here right now." Dawn told him.

"Oh, well thanks you guys." Said Ash.

"That's what friends are for right!" Dawn said. Friends. That word stuck around in Ash's head after Dawn had finished talking. He had never thought of the two girls as his friends. He more so thought of them as good acquaintances. Although, thinking back on the last week, they had hung out and had a lot of fun together. Heck, they were going to another soccer game tonight, and were eating lunch together right now. Ash blushed as the three of them began to eat their food. Aside from Gary he had never had been real friends with anyone, much less friends with a girl. Ash blushed again as quickly tried to diminish the thought from his head. Ash had never had a girlfriend before, or had he ever knew of a girl who had liked him. Dawn and Gary were a thing now, which leaves Ash and May being the two singles. Ash couldn't help himself from thinking more on this topic. He had heard that May and Drew had broken up, but didn't know why. Realizing this he refused to let himself think about it any further and tried to bring up a conversation to take his mind of it.

"So how are you and Torchic doing?" Ash asked May, who had been helping Dawn with a homework question.

"Really good actually! We're really getting along, plus everyone else loves Torchic!" May said with a smile. She continued to tell Ash several stories of her family members initial reactions to meeting her Torchic. Throughout their conversation, Ash 's eyes soon began to wander from May's. He began to take notice of her features, her brown hair, her smile, and the sparkle in her eyes.

"Ash!"

"Ah! What?" Ash said, being knocked out of his trance.

"I asked how Pikachu was doing." May told him.

"Oh. Uh…he's doing alright." Ash said, struggling to find words as he was caught off guard.

"Excuse me for a moment, I'll be back in a minute." Ash said, as he got up from the table and headed towards the bathroom.

"What's up with him?" Dawn asked.

"Who knows?" May said, who was more focused on how strange it felt to not be sitting by Drew anymore.

Meanwhile Ash had entered the bathroom and looked himself in the mirror. What in the world was going on with him? Sure he had liked girls in the past, but was he really feeling the same way about May. His mind then went back to their conversation.

"Was I checking her out…" Ash thought to himself, slightly in shock, slightly ashamed.

"I mean, she is pretty cute."

SPLASH

Ash had turned on the sink and splashed water all over his face. What the hell was he thinking? Why was he thinking like this? Even if May did like him back, she just went through a breakup. Even so wasn't Ash just overthinking this? They had only known each other for a little over a week. Ash forced himself to forget about it for now, and went back out to the lunchroom.

"What happened? Did you fall in a toilet or something?" May asked as her and Dawn laughed at Ash. Ash looked down and realized that his shirt was soaking wet. When he splashed water onto his face he must've got a lot on his shirt too.

"Oh, um, sink malfunction." Ash said, hoping they'd buy it, only to realize how stupid it sounded after he had said it.

"Sink malfunction? Never heard of that before." Dawn said with a chuckle.

With that the bell signifying the end of lunch rang. The three said goodbye to each other vowing to meet in the parking lot before the game again later that night. The rest of the day went on as normal, boring classes and boring teachers.

The bell finally rang ending classes at Kanto High for the day. Today was Tuesday, which meant that Ash would have another battle for the Kanto High Pokémon battle tournament. Ash had been looking forward to this all weekend, and rushed out to the fields right after school ended. Ash was the first one to arrive, shortly followed by Richie, who had come to watch the rest of the battles and to cheer Ash on.

After another ten minutes everyone had gathered around, when Tracy finally showed up so that things could get underway.

"Alright, we are down to the final four trainers. Winston, Ash, Gary, and Morrison. The top two will go to the championship on Thursday. The matchups for today will be Morrison and Winston, who will battle first. Followed up by the Great Ash Ketchum against Gary Oak." Tracy said, as Ash's jaw dropped to the ground. He'd been hoping that this wouldn't happen. Ash initially was hoping that Gary would have been knocked out of the tournament by now. Now he gulped as Gary shot him a smirk.

"Ok lets get started!" Tracy said as he spun the wheel, which decided the number of Pokémon that will be used in each battle, this time landing on six.

"Alright, a six on six battle between Winston and Morrison. This should be a good one! Everyone ready? Let the match begin!" Tracy shouted as the two began battling. The battle was very close early on, each bringing each other down to just three Pokémon. Winston then pulled away here and ended up defeating Morrison with two Pokémon still standing. Next up was Ash and Gary.

Ash and Gary took their sides of the battlefield and waited for Tracy. Tracy then walked over and spun the wheel again, the point eventually landing on a four.

"This will be a four on four match between Ash and Gary! Winner will go to the finals to face Winston! Let the battle begin!" Tracy shouted as Ash tried to decide which Pokémon he would use first. Gary only actually owned two Pokémon, a Mudkip and Bullbasaur, so he'd likely have those two and two others that he borrowed from Professor Oak.

"Let's go Froakie!" Ash said as he threw out his pokeball, waiting to see what Gary would do.

"Nidorino come out!" Gary said as the purple Pokémon materialized onto the field.

"Alright Froakie lets do this, use Quick Attack!"

"Quick use Poison Sting before it gets here!" Gary said, as Nidorino as Froakie was stopped in its tracks.

"Now use Horn Attack!"

"Dodge it and use Water Pulse." Ash shouted. Froakie then leaped into the air and sent Water Pulse at Nidorino knocking it backwards.

"Quick Attack Froakie, then use pound!" Froakie flew in and hit Nidorino again before it could recover. Froakie repeated this again except with a Pound attack. Nidorino, being one of Professor Oaks Pokémon wasn't used to battling, so this attack finished it.

"Nidorino is unable to battle! This leaves Gary Oak with three Pokémon left."

"Alright Froakie way to go!" Ash said as Froakie danced around in celebration.

"Bulbasaur, let's show them what your made of!" Gary said as his Bulbasaur took the field.

"Grab it with Vine Whip!"

"Dodge it Froakie!" It was too late for Froakie however, as Bulbasaur grabbed hold and pulled It in close.

"Now use Sleep Powder." Gary said with confidence. With that, Bulbasaur sprayed a orange powder onto Froakie, sending it straight to sleep.

"Let's wrap this up. Leech Seed. Now Razor Leaf, and finish it with Tackle. Ash watched helplessly as Froakie endured the combination of attacks from Gary's Bulbasaur.

"Froakie is unable to battle!" Tracy said once Froakie had tumbled to the ground.

"You did great Froakie, thanks a lot." Ash said as he returned it to its pokeball.

"This battle is just getting started Ashy boy!" Gary said from across the field.

"You better believe it Gary! Come out Charizard!" Ash said, hoping to get the easy type advantage. Gary seemed completely unfazed by Ash's choice; in fact it looked like he had been expecting it. There were oohs from the crowd, despite charmander being a common Kanto Pokémon, it wasn't everyday that you got to see a Charizard.

"Flamethrower now!" Ash said, only for Bulbasaur to launch itself into the air with its vines dodging the attack. Bulbasaur then launched a Razor Leaf at Charizard, only narrowly hitting it as it flew up into the air.

"Quick while its still in the air, Flare Blitz!" This was one of Charizard's strongest attacks, and even though Charizard would take some damage from it, it could easily take down Bulbasaur.

Bulbasaur landed a mere second before Charizard arrived. It used its vines to try and shield itself but it was useless. The two crashed together sending up a large cloud of dust.

While Charizard had taken a bit of damage it was still standing, ready for more. Meanwhile Bulbsaur was down for the count, not yet having been trained long enough to withstand attacks like that.

"Bulbasaur is unable to battle! Just two Pokémon left for Gary."

"Nice work Charizard!" Ash said, he was happy with how the battle was going so far; it looked like he might actually win this time.

"Don't think this battle's over yet Ash! Mudkip let's show him!" Gary said. Mudkip was Gary's first Pokémon, and he'd been training it for several months now. Not only that, but Mudkip had already beaten Charizard in a battle a little while ago.

"Let's get this going. Use Water Gun!" Mudkip shot a stream of water Charizard's way, only for Charizard to dodge it effortlessly. After several more tries, Mudkip still wasn't having any luck, so Gary called off the attack.

"We aren't going to lose to you this time Gary!" Ash said, thinking that he had this battle wrapped up.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Ashy, do it now Mudkip!" Gary said as Mudkip remained standing still. In a moment, Mudkip began to glow, a white light surrounding its body.

"What's going on?"

"I think it's evolving!"

The whole crowd of people watching was in awe, as Mudkip transformed itself into a Marshtomp before their eyes.

"Dig Marshtomp." Gary shouted, wasting no time.

"Fly up into the air Charizard!" Ash said, thinking it would be safe up there. Marshtomp reappeared as another hole appeared in the ground, due to it's newfound incredible leg strength, Marshtomp was able to launch itself up and tackle Charizard, sending it back to the ground with a Water Gun attack.

'Finish it with Mud Bomb, then water gun again." Gary shouted. Two super effective moves in a row were enough to finish off Charizard for the day.

"Charizard is unable to battle. Both trainers have two Pokémon left!" Tracy announced.

"Ah, Charizard you were awesome, take a good rest." Ash said, now realizing that Gary was right back in this battle. Staraptor, Bulbasaur, and Cyndaquil were his only options left, since he left Aipom at home.

"Bulbasaur let's go!"

Bulbasaur materialized onto the field and faced Marshtomp. Marshtomp immediately leaped into the ground and burrowed its way below the earth, using another dig attack. There was nothing that Bulbsaur could do, so it was hit full force from behind by Marshtomp.

"Ah, are you alright Bulbasaur?" Ash asked his Pokémon. Bulbasaur replied by getting back on its feet and charging towards Marshtomp.

"Use Protect!"

Marshtomp formed a circular barrier around itself, stopping Bulbasaur's attack from having any effect. Marshtomp then sent a Mud Shot, hitting Bulbasaur directly.

"Use Dig again Marshtomp!" Gary said as Marshtomp dove back underground.

"Quick Bulbasaur, send a Razor Leaf through the hole!" Ash said, figuring that this would hit Marshtomp. Bulbasaur leaped to the hole that Marshtomp had originally gone in, and sent a flurry of Razor Leafs inside it. Marshtomp reappeared several feet away, popping up out of the ground, still taking damage from Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf, before falling down.

"Marshtomp is unable to battle! Gary has one Pokémon left, while Ash still has two!"

"Alright Bulbasaur!" Ash said, celebrating another victory, being just one Pokémon away from his first victory against Gary.

"Not bad Ash, but I've still got some tricks up my sleeve!" Gary said, still keeping the same confidence that he'd had throughout the match.

"Litten, come on out!" Gary said, as the catlike Pokémon appeared on the battlefield. Again many oohs and ahh's came from the crowd once again. Ash and many of the other trainers watching pulled out their pokedex. Ash had never seen any Pokémon like this before, neither had his pokedex either.

"No information available." Everyone's pokedex said.

"What kind of Pokémon is that, and where did you get it?" Ash and all the others asked Gary.

"This is Litten. I borrowed him from my grandpa. Litten can only be found in the Alola region and I got lucky enough to have one." Gary explained.

"The Alola region?" Ash thought to himself, the name sounded familiar but he couldn't quite recall the characteristics of the region. Ash only remembered that him and his mother had gone there on vacation when he was really young, so he really didn't remember anything about it.

"That's pretty cool Gary, but we've got a battle to finish!" Ash said with a fist pump.

"Alright Ash, we'll finish this. Then the fans can take some pics of Litten once he's through with you." Gary replied cockily.

"Ember." Gary said quickly, catching Ash off guard. Bulbasaur was also unaware and didn't realize he was being attack until the ball of fire was right in front of him.

"That's one super effective hit. Let's finish him with one more Litten. Ember again!"

Another super effective attack on Bulbasaur was enough to weaken it greatly. Bulbasaur tried to stand up, but despite its efforts collapsed back to the ground.

"Bulbasaur is unable to battle! Both Ash and Gary are now down to their last Pokémon." Tracy said excitedly. At this point nearly everyone in the crowd was stunned. Gary wasn't known for being a Pokémon trainer, but yet he was one Pokémon away from taking down Ash Ketchum, who was now considered a Pokémon trainer God at Kanto High. Frankly Ash couldn't help but let some doubt slip into his mind throughout the battle. While he was doing better than he usually did against Gary, he hadn't yet been able to get into a good groove like he had in his previous battles.

Now Ash had to decide on his final Pokémon. He liked the idea of a fire type versus fire type battle to finish things off, so he decided on Cyndaquil.

'Let's go Cyndaquil!" Ash said as he threw the pokeball, only there was a problem.

"AIPOM!" The monkey squeaked as it took the field.

"Wait, Aipom! Oh no! I grabbed the wrong pokeball!" Ash said in frustration. He hadn't even let Aipom out of its pokeball since he had caught it, because of how rowdy it had been before. It looked like this match was going to become a disaster. Ash didn't even know what kind of attacks Aipom knew.

"Fury Swipes!" Ash heard Gary yell from across the field as Litten charged forward.

"Dodge it Aipom!" Ash said. Aipom ignored Ash however, and jumped up and stole his hat again, before placing it on its own head.

"What are you doing Aipom?" Ash yelled. Just then Litten had arrived and used its Fury Swipes on Aipom. Aipom, being caught of guard, thought Litten just wanted to play with it. Aipom realized this wasn't the case however, after taking an Ember attack from point blank distance.

This caused Aipom to get angry and slap Litten back with its tail, actually dealing a bit of damage. At this point, Ash was more focused on controlling Aipom and getting his hat back more than the battle. Ash finally saw the opportunity to snatch his hat off the purple monkey's head, and placed it back on his own. Aipom turned back around to Ash, with a playfully look on its face. Just then a look of shock came onto Aipom's face, as it collapsed on the ground, having been hit by another ember attack.

"Aipom is unable to battle! This means Gary is the winner!" Tracy said, everyone watching was stunned; Ash just completely blew the battle when it mattered the most. Ash dropped to his knees and stared at the ground, not even bothering to return Aipom to its pokeball. He had let victory slip right out of his hand, just because he had grabbed the wrong pokeball from his house that morning.

"Is that 104, or 105 now?" Gary asked, who was now standing in front of Ash. Ash's only reply was a groan of defeat.

"Haha, see you later Ashy boy." Gary said before letting everyone play with Litten.

 **20 Minutes Later**

"Um, Ash are you okay?" May asked, noticing Ash, who was lying on the ground next to an Aipom.

"Um, sure." Ash replied blankly.

"Come on, at least get off the ground." May said, pulling Ash to his feet. Ash then returned Aipom to its pokeball, who was still unconscious.

"I should probably head over to the Pokémon center. I'll meet you here later!" Ash said as he jogged off towards the road, wanting to be alone.

"Oh… ok." May said. Talking to only herself at his point as Ash was already a considerable distance away. May had really grown fond of Ash over the last week. He had been really nice to her and they had been having lots of fun together.

"Hey May, want to go grab something to eat?" Dawn said as she pulled in her car. May agreed and got in.

"Where's Ash?" Dawn asked.

"He said he was going to the Pokémon Center I think, but he said he'd meet us back here later, so maybe he has some other stuff to do." May guessed, being somewhat curious of what was going on with Ash. She did find herself thinking about him more often over the next few days, he really was a great friend.

 **At The Pokémon Center**

"Thanks Nurse Joy." Ash said, as he was given back each of his Pokémon. Ash then went and walked around town, again finding his way back to the park and the same swing that he had been on earlier. This loss had been particularly hard on Ash, more so than many of his other losses. Not only had he blew a great chance at beating Gary, he also felt that he let everyone down. Everyone at Kanto High regarded him as one of the best, but if he couldn't even win a school tournament, then how in the world was he supposed to win the Indigo League. Many depressing thoughts ran through Ash's head as continued swinging.

"Aipom!" The Pokémon said as it was brought out of its pokeball.

"I'm sorry Aipom. It's my fault you got hurt back there. Can you forgive me?" Ash said, extending his hand, which held his hat. Aipom took the hat and placed it on its head with a squeal of happiness. It then leaped up and sat on Ash's head, looking around and enjoying its new trainers company.

"Your full of energy you know. Now if we can get you to use all that energy in battles then you'd be a star." Ash said as he stood up from the swing, causing Aipom to jump to the ground.

"Come on out Froakie. " Ash said as the small frog appeared before them.

"You to go play for awhile, I'll be waiting here." He told the two Pokémon, who ran around the park chasing each other. Ash couldn't help but smile as he watched them run around, Aipom looking particularly funny wearing his hat.

"This is just another chance for me to learn." Ash said to himself, despite the loss he began to feel a sense of pride in both himself and his Pokémon. Along with this came a feeling of new determination, a desire to get even stronger and smarter. With his newfound confidence Ash got off the swing and headed back towards Kanto High.

 **A Few Hours Later**

"Welcome to the Kanto Dragons second home match of the year! Tonight they will be facing off against the Cerulean City Seadra's! The Seadra's are 0-3 to start the year while the Dragons are 2-0 so far. Let's begin the match!"

Ash, May, and Dawn once again meet up and went to watch the game, being joined by Richie, who had been talking to Ash when the girls arrived.

"A quick start for the Dragons! Gary Oak scores the first goal of the match, on the first possession of the match! Incredible!" The announcer shouted.

"Wow, another goal by the dragons, with Gary Oak delivering a great assist. The Seadra's defense seems to be falling apart, as the score is 2-0 in just the 7th minute!"

"Jeez, Gary sure is on a role today." Ash said, happy to see Gary excelling on the field.

"And I'm the lucky girl that can call him my boyfriend." Dawn said, obviously excited as well.

"What about you May, any new boys peak your interest?" Dawn asked, saying it intentionally loud enough so that Ash would hear. Dawn thought that Ash and May would make a cute couple, plus they had already been hanging out for a while now. Dawn hadn't teased May about Ash in a while, so she figured that now would be a good time to start again. After shrugging Dawn's comment off, May went on to talk to Ash about Torchic and his Pokémon, causing Dawn to smirk.

"And that's the game! A 5-0 blowout for the Dragons as they improve to 3-0 this season, being led by Gary Oak who finished with two goals as well as two assists of his own." The announcer said as everyone began to file out of the stands. What could Ash say, Gary was unstoppable today.

Ash was over his loss from earlier and gave Gary a chest bump when they met up after the game. The four once again decided to go out and grab something to eat before heading home.

"That's pretty cool you know. That you got to use Litten for our battle today." Ash said, still trying his hardest to bring back memories of his time in Alola.

"Oh ya, Gramps had just finished doing his research with it, so he let me take him. By the way, he told me to tell you to head over to the lab sometime, I guess he's got something new for your pokedex." Gary told him as they drove down the road towards Pallet town.

 **The Next Day**

After school Ash dashed off back to Pallet Town, heading toward professor Oak's lab. Once he reached the entrance he didn't even bother to knock, instead just running inside to find Professor Oak just a few feet away.

"Ah hello Ash! I thought that you'd come around soon. I'm sure Gary told you that I can upgrade your pokedex for you." The man said as he was handed Ash's pokedex. After connecting it to a computer and tinkering with it some more, he handed it back to Ash.

"There you go. Now your pokedex is filled with information from Pokémon in the Alola region. Gary had told me that your pokedex hadn't been able to find anything on his Litten before, so I thought this would come in handy for you." Oak explained to him.

"Thanks professor! Ash said as checked his pokedex for any new features. He then spent the rest of his afternoon working with his Pokémon, focusing mostly on Aipom. When actually taking a battle seriously, Ash found that Aipom was actually pretty strong. Getting Aipom to focus was quite the struggle however. After nearly two hours of intense training, Ash decided to stop, deciding that he and his team were finally ready to start taking on the Kanto gym leaders.


	5. Chapter 5

"A two on two battle between Winston and Gary will decide the championship!" Tracy said, as the final day of Kanto High's Pokémon tournament had finally come.

Ash sprinted his way over to the battlefields already late for the match. Ash arrived just in time to see the closing moments of the battle.

"Bulbasaur use Vine Whip!" Gary shouted. The vines sent Winston's Hitmonchan tumbling backwards.

"Hitmonchan is unable to battle! This means that Gary Oak is the winner of the match, and the Kanto High Pokémon Tournament!" Everyone cheered for Gary as Tracy gave him a small trophy as his prize.

"Well that's that folks! I think next semester we're going to try and hold another tournament but we'll see how things turn out. Thanks for everyone who participated!" Tracy said as everyone slowly started to disperse.

Ash looked around hoping to spot Richie whom he had made plans to meet with there.

"There you are!" Richie said as he finally found Ash.

"I was a bit late, but at least I saw the end of the match! You ready to do some training!" Ash said, getting himself focused on the task at hand. Ash was planning on taking on his first gym leader in a few days, so he really needed to concentrate on training right now.

"Hey Ash. I'm also planning on entering the Indigo League, I'm going to try and challenge the Pewter City Gym on Saturday, when are you going to start battling the gyms?" Richie asked him.

"Oh, I was actually going to go there on Saturday too!" Ash explained.

"Awesome! We should go together! Plus it will give one of us a little advantage, being able to see the gym leaders Pokémon in action before battling with help a lot." Richie said.

"Sounds like a plan!" Ash said, as they each brought several of their Pokémon out of their pokeballs.

"Man, I really wanted to bring Pikachu so that he could try to learn Electro Ball. Maybe once he's back to battling you'll have to help me teach him Richie." Ash said, missing his Pokémon's company.

"Hopefully Pikachu's recovers quickly. At least this first gym is a rock type from what I've heard, so he probably wouldn't have been battling anyways." Richie said. It was true that Pikachu wouldn't be much of a help at the Pewter City gym, so it good that Pikachu would be sitting out now rather than a more important battle.

"Alright Richie, want to have a quick battle to get warmed up?" Ash asked.

"Sure! Does a one on one sound good?"

"You bet! I'll use you Staraptor!" Ash replied as Staraptor took to the air.

Richie sent out his Charmeleon, which was one of his stronger Pokémon.

"Let's start this off with a Flamethrower attack!" Richie said, as Charmeleon launched its attack.

"Dodge and use Quick Attack!" Ash countered. Staraptor flew up into the air and zoomed straight into Charmeleon.

"Now use Aerial Ace Staraptor!" Staraptor executed this move to perfection, and knocked Charmeleon over from behind.

"Finish with a Take Down!" Charmeleon was struck with one final blow before fainting.

"Wow Ash, you've definitely gotten stronger since our last battle. I think its safe to say your loss against Gary was a total fluke. Your obviously ready for the Indigo League, I've still got a little work to do haha!" Richie said to Ash.

"Thanks Richie, I'm sure we'll both do great at the Indigo League!" Ash told him. The two boys spent another hour together, helping each other train their Pokémon.

As the sun began to set Ash had finally made his way back to his house in Pallet Town.

"Pika!" Ash heard his friend squeak from the other room, obviously excited to see his trainer again.

"Hey there buddy! Sorry I didn't get home sooner." Ash said. He had been so focused on his training with Richie that he had forgotten to get back to Pikachu sooner; thankfully Delia had given Pikachu some company while Ash was away.

 **At The Maple Household**

May shook her head, obviously flustered.

"Do I really feel this way about him? Or is it just my mind playing tricks on me?" She thought to herself.

"TORR!" Torchic screeched, catching May by surprise, causing her to fall off of her bed.

"Sorry Torchic. I'm just a little confused right now." May tried to explain.

"At least I know where I stand with you." May said as she rubbed Torchic's head, causing a gleeful response.

"I've realized something Torchic. Since we met, I've only been thinking about myself when it comes to you and what I want you to be. But you're my friend, and you should be able to do what you want. But I don't know what you want to do, and I'm not exactly sure you do either. Maybe Ash can help us out." May said to Torchic in realization. Torchic must have been really bored since it had become May's pet, just sitting at home all day. May wouldn't allow this anymore; she wanted Torchic to have fun, not just sit around every day.

May looked at herself in the mirror that was leaning against her closet. She looked like a mess, a good representation of how she was currently feeling at the moment. May had a lot of things to figure out, lots of different emotions were running through her, with questions that needed to be answered. She chalked this all up to being a teenager, taking comfort in knowing that Dawn sometimes felt the same.

 **The Next Day**

"Hey Ash!" May said as she spotted him walking over to his locker.

"Good morning May!" Ash replied, who was in an unusually good mood this morning.

"Could you give me some advice on Torchic if you don't mind?" May asked him, looking for some guidance.

"Of course May! But I've got to go right now, how about we talk about it after school?" Ash said, hoping to talk to Richie before class started.

"Sounds good Ash! How about we go get ice cream again too!" She said, becoming very happy when Ash agreed. May's cheeks became red as Ash walked of in search of Richie.

A soft voice then spoke into May's ears from behind her. "Either someone's got a crush or you're doing your best tomato impression!" Dawn said with a giggle. May, trying to think of a good comeback, only blushed harder.

"It's not a crush, its… Time for class! " May said, thanking Arceus that the class bell had rung at that moment, making it acceptable to leave Dawn hanging. Dawn smirked as May walked quickly away, making a mental note to bring this up later.

Another day at Kanto High had come and gone, now being around mid October, the whether began to get a bit chilly. May threw on her hoodie as her and Ash walked out the doors towards downtown Viridian City. It was a cold and windy day, but it's never to cold for ice cream, so the couple made their way towards the same ice cream store they had visited earlier.

As they were walking, a strong gust of wind came by, pushing May right into Ash. Ash felt it too, but thought nothing of May leaning up against, as he too had to readjust his feet to prevent himself from falling over. May waited for a few seconds before pulling herself off of Ash, trying to feel the warmth of his body for just a moment longer.

They finally reached the shop, relieved to be out of the cold. They each ordered a scoop of their choice before taking a seat on a booth in the back corner.

"So what did you want to talk about May?" Ash asked. May explained her predicament to Ash, who seemed happy that she was brining this up to him.

"Well you seem too really care about Torchic, so your already off to a good start!" Ash said with a smile.

"But there are several things that you and Torchic can do together, battling and Pokémon contests are the most popular choices, but there's lots of other options too." Ash said, trying to think of what he could see May and her Pokémon doing.

"Hmm, I never actually seen a Pokémon contest, and I don't think that battling is much my style, but It can't hurt to try them both." May decided.

"That's great May! Richie and I are actually going to be in Pewter City tomorrow for a gym battle. You could come along and see what it's like if you want."

"Could I really? That'd be so cool! Oh and good luck to you guys tomorrow too!" May replied.

"Thanks!" Ash said, with a grin on his face. After discussing their plans for a while longer and finishing their ice cream, they went their separate ways, with May heading back to Pewter City and Ash back to Pallet Town.

When Ash got home he made sure that all of his Pokémon were in tiptop shape for tomorrow's gym battle at the Pewter City gym. He spent a good hour with them practicing their moves and strategizing on how take down a team of rock type Pokémon.

 **The Next Day**

"Pika Pika!" Pikachu squealed. Try to encourage Ash as his trainer walked out the door, ready to meet up with Richie and May. Ash nearly sprinted the whole way to Viridian City where he found Richie waiting for him by the front doors.

"You ready Ash?" Richie asked as he saw Ash approaching.

"You bet I am, it's been awhile since I've been this pumped for a battle!" Ash said, trying to contain his excitement and save it all for the gym battle.

The two boys started the trek to Pewter City, all the while discussing each other's strategies and which Pokémon the other would be using.

It wasn't too long before the boys found themselves at May's doorstep, who would be joining them to watch their gym battles.

May's younger brother Max had opened the door for the boys, but not before giving his typical "Whoa, your Ash Ketchum!" greeting to Ash.

Richie was greeted by a small tug on his pants leg, which came from the small beak of Torchic. Seconds later May appeared from around the corner.

"Hey guys! Ready for your battle?" May asked the boys.

"Yup!" They both answered in unison, a look of determination in their eyes.

The party, which included Max, left the Maple house and began the walk over to the Pewter City Gym.

The large stone building stood looming in front of the four kids, giving off intimidating vibes.

"Ready Richie?" Ash said, who was full of confidence.

"Uh ya…" Richie replied, who was obviously nervous, as this was his first ever gym battle. Sensing this, Ash offered to battle the gym leader first, so that Richie would be able to pick up on some things for his turn.

"Well no sense in standing around waiting, let's go in!" Ash said leading the way.

Upon entering the building they were greeted by a man, who was the gym assistant.

"We're here to challenge the gym leader." Ash told him. The man simply nodded and motioned for them to follow him. He led them down a narrow hallway and through a door at the end of it. Once they had all entered the man closed the door behind them and stood silent. They were now in a battlefield, with bleachers surrounding it.

"Wow, challenges this early in the morning?" A voice rang from across the room. The shadow of a tall man could be seen walking towards them.

"I'm Flint, the Pewter City Gym Leader." He said as he approached the group.

"So which of you wishes to challenge me?" He asked, with a cold glare in his eyes.

"Me sir, I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."

"And me too, my name is Richie."

"Very well, I'm sure your well aware of the rules of a gym battle. 3 Pokémon for each trainer, only the challenger can switch Pokémon during the battle, and if you win you get a boulder badge. So who's first?" He asked.

"I'll battle first." Ash said stepping forward.

"Alright, no time to waste, lets get started."

This will be a 3 on 3 battle for a boulder badge. The Pewter City gym leader Flint vs. the challenger Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!" The assistant said, who was also the referee for the matches.

"If you couldn't tell by the design of the building, I specialize in rock type Pokémon Ash, I hope you're well prepared. Geodude come out!"

Flint's Geodude took to the battlefield and waited for its challenger.

"Froakie your up!" Ash said as he threw his first pokeball.

"I'll let you make the first move Ash, lets have a good match." Flint told him, while the others watched anxiously from the bleachers.

"Even though Ash has done so well in the past, I still feel really nervous about this battle for him." May said.

"Oh please May!" Max retorted. "Ash is world class trainer, he could win this with his eyes closed." Max said, obviously confident of Ash's abilities.

"Froakie use Quick Attack, but use Water Pulse while you do it!" Ash said.

Following his trainer's orders, Froakie took of towards Geodude but not before firing a Water Pulse attack its way.

"Dodge the water Geodude!" Flint commanded, already realizing the dilemma Ash had put him in. With two attacks coming Geodude's way there was no choice but to take one the hits, the quick attack dealing the least amount of damage.

Geodude was able to dodge the water but was hit by Froakie seconds later. Quick attack isn't very effective against rock types, so Geodude wasn't affected much.

"I'm impressed Ash, the rumors about you are true, your sure know your way around a Pokémon battle." Flint said.

"Froakie stand there." Ash said, causing everyone to be confused by his actions.

"Grab it Geodude!" Flint ordered.

Geodude floated over to Froakie and grabbed it with its hands, preparing to throw it.

"Water Pulse!" Ash shouted.

It was too late for Flint or Geodude to do anything, as the attack was a direct blast, knocking Geodude unconscious.

"Geodude is unable to battle, Froakie is the winner. Flint has two Pokémon remaining."

"That was quite a strategy Ash, but it wont be that easy the rest of the way. Graveler its your turn!"

With that Flint's second Pokémon took the field.

"Use Rollout!" Graveler curled into a ball and came spinning at Froakie.

"Froakie Return!" Ash called as he returned Froakie to his pokeball, thinking of a better strategy to use here.

"Let's go Bulbasaur!"

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur cried as it took the field, excited to be battling.

"Rollout again Graveler!"

"Bulbasaur use your Vine Whip to jump over it and use Razor Leaf." Ash said, finding a way to both evade Flint's attack and use an attack of their own. Bulbasaur pulled off the combination of moves perfectly, causing Graveler to take heavy damage from the Razor Leaf attack.

"Finish it Tackle!" Ash said.

"Self Destruct Graveler!" Flint called out as Bulbasaur got close. Ash had only a second to do something, and luckily the perfect move came to mind.

"Vine Whip yourself away from it!" Ash shouted to Bulbasaur, who was in a panic as its momentum wasn't going to be stopped in time. But Bulbasaur used its vines to stop itself and launch itself backwards away from Graveler as the explosion took place.

"Graveler is unable to battle, Bulbasaur wins! Flint has one Pokémon left!"

Bulbasaur had managed to come away from the attack completely unharmed, and stood by Ash, ready for more.

"Onix, use Dragon Breath!" Flint said as his final Pokémon was revealed.

"Counter it with Razor Leaf Bulbasaur!" Ash said.

The collision of the attacks caused cloud of smoke to appear between the two Pokémon.

"Vine Whip through the smoke!"

Onix only had a second to realize what was happening before Bulbasaur's two vines shot out of the smoke, inflicting an effective hit.

"Onix use dig!" Flint called, as his Onix burrowed its way under the battlefield.

"Bulbasaur return!" Ash called his Bulbasaur back to its pokeball, debating who he should send out next.

"Aipom your up!" Ash said as the purple monkey appeared. Before Aipom could take in its surroundings Onix came up from beneath Aipom, launching it high into the air.

"Swift Aipom!"

The swift attack hit Onix , but only did minor damage. Onix countered with an Iron Tail attack, which sent Aipom flying into the wall.

"Aipom is unable to battle! Onix is the winner! The challenger Ash has two pokemon remaining!" The referee said.

"Well. It was worth a shot I guess…" Ash said with a sigh.

"Ok let's rap this battle up, Froakie come on!"

Now everyone was able to see one Ash's most clever strategies. He had planned out his whole battle in advance, from switching Pokémon, to even anticipating Aipom's early knockout. Now was his final move, a preplanned attack from Froakie.

Onix stood waiting to see its next opponent. The small blue frog appeared an without Ash commanding, immediately launched a Water Pulse attack as soon as it laid eyes on Onix. Flint couldn't react in time to counter it, and Onix took a direct hit, causing it to tumble to the ground.

"Onix is unable to battle! This means the winner of the match is the challenger Ash Ketchum!" The referee said.

Ash brought out his other Pokémon he had used and thanked them before heading over to Flint.

"That was an exciting battle Ash, you've proven yourself to be a worthy trainer. I wish you the best of luck in the Indigo League! Take this." Flint said as he placed a the small badge which was shaped like a rock, into Ash's hand.

"This is the boulder badge, you've earned it!"

"Thanks Flint! You have some strong Pokémon for sure, it was a fun battle!" Ash replied.

"Told you May!" Max said, who had expected Ash to sweep Flint's team from the start.

"Your right this time Max." May replied, wondering why she had doubted Ash's battling skills.

Ash walked over to the three of them with a large grin on his face.

"Congrats Ash!" Richie said, bumping fists with him.

"Thanks Richie! Your up next, are you ready!" Ash asked him.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" Richie said, who was hiding his nerves.

"I'm actually ready to battle right away if you are. I've got other Pokémon I like to use too." Flint said from across the room.

"Uh sure." Richie said as he stood up.

"Plus using other Pokémon wont let you take advantage of seeing my strategies with my previous Pokémon." Flint said, causing everyone's smile to drop, as it basically ruined their strategy that they were planning on taking advantage of. Now Richie would be going up against new moves and tricks.

"Well, lets get started!" Flint said, as Richie took the other side of the field.

"This will be a 3 on 3 battle for a boulder badge. The challenger Richie vs. the Pewter City gym leader Flint. Let the battle begin!"

"Ok, no messing around this time!" Flint said as he threw out his first Pokémon.

Everyone gasped at what they saw. Richie had to revaluate his strategy quickly, although he never really had one before.

"Sparky looks like your up!" Richie said as his Pikachu took the field as the battle began.

"Ancient Power Aerodactyl!"


	6. Chapter 6

"Sparky!" Richie shouted as his Pikachu was sent tumbling from the rocks that Aerodactyl had thrown.

"Supersonic!" Flint said, and in an instant Sparky was totally confused.

"Now use Hyper Beam!" said Flint as Aerodactyl began charging power for its attack.

"Snap out of it Sparky, quick!" Richie shouted in desperation, but it was to late.

"Now Aerodactyl!"

The blast sent Sparky flying past Richie into the wall, knocking it out.

"Pikachu is unable to battle. The challenger Richie has two Pokémon left!" The referee said as Richie stared in disbelief, he knew the gym leader would be strong, but not this strong. He spent a few seconds thinking before choosing his next Pokémon.

"Larvitar go!" Richie said as he called out his Larvitar.

"Richie attack quick!" Ash called from the bleachers, causing Richie to look over in confusion, until Ash pointed at Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl couldn't move for a little while after using Hyper Beam.

"Dark Pulse Larvitar!" Richie said as he realized what Ash had been trying to tell him. Larvitar launched the attack just in the knick of time, as it made contact with Aerodactyl as it regained its movement.

"Now use Sandstorm!"

Larvitar kicked up dust and began to spin it, eventually causing the entire battlefield being covered by flying sand and dust.

"Use your wings to stop the sandstorm!" Flint said, hoping that it would help him see his opponent.

"Rock slide Larvitar."

Before Aerodactyl could react it was hit directly by Larvitar's attack, sending it to the ground.

"Aerodactyl is unable to battle! Flint has two Pokémon remaining!"

"Impressive Richie! Time for my next Pokémon!"

Flint revealed his next Pokémon to be a fossil Pokémon, Kabuto.

"Aqua Jet Kabuto!"

Kabuto surrounded itself with water and launched towards Larvitar. Since Larvitar was a slower Pokémon, it was unable to avoid the attack, taking a super effective hit.

"Now use Mega Drain!" Flint said. Kabuto then took advantage of Larvitar still being down and drained its health.

"Finish with Scratch Kabuto"

Richie, realizing that he needed to do something, decided to go all or nothing.

"Hyper Beam Larvitar!" Richie had been trying to teach Larvitar how to use Hyper Beam in the weeks before the battle, but was having very little luck. Maybe it was the intensity of a real gym battle, but Larvitar was able to muster the strength to pull it off. Larvitar launched the attack as Kabuto made contact with its Scratch attack. Both Pokémon we're sent flying away from each other, before fainting.

"Both Kabuto and Larvitar are unable to battle! Both Flint and Richie have just one Pokémon left!"

"Zippo your up." Richie said as he called out his last Pokémon, a Charmeleon.

"You've proven yourself to be a respectable trainer Richie, let's make this a good last battle!" Flint said as he threw his final pokeball, revealing a Shieldon.

"Iron defense!" Flint said, as Shieldon began raising its defense power.

"Quick stop it Zippo, use Flamethrower!" Richie called, hoping to stop Shieldon from raising its defenses anymore. Shieldon took the attack but didn't seem to have taken much damage.

"Take Down!" Flint shouted as Shieldon began a charge towards Charmeleon.

"Stop it with Dragon Rage!"

Charmeleon gathered its energy and shot the attack, which stopped Shieldon in its tracks.

"Hmm…" Flint thought to himself.

"Shieldon. Use Swagger!" Swagger was an attack that raises a Pokémon's attack power greatly, but caused it to become confused, making it a very risky strategy.

"Quick while its confused you scratch!" Richie said, realizing now was the time to strike. Zippo landed multiple Scratch attacks before Shieldon snapped out of its confusion.

"Take Down one more time!" Shieldon lowered its head and charged once again at Charmeleon. Richie called for Zippo to use Dragon Rage again, and the attacks collided, causing an explosion of dust and dirt.

The smoke cleared seconds later, revealing Charmeleon to be heavily damaged, but still standing. Shieldon on the other hand had not faired so well, and was down for the count.

"Shieldon is unable to battle! This means that the challenger Richie is the winner of the match!" The referee said. It took awhile for those words to really sink into Richie's head; he had actually won a gym battle. A smile quickly overcame his face as he hugged his Charmeleon.

"Congratulations!" Flint said, as he reached out and shook hands with Richie.

"Using a move like swagger is risky business, I guess the odds weren't in my favor today." Flint said as he reached into his pocket, before pulling out a badge.

"This is the boulder badge, and you've definitely earned it. It's easy to see that the bond that you have with your Pokémon is powerful, and can help you through the toughest of situations."

"Thank you Flint, and thanks for the battle, I learned so much!" Richie said as he accepted the badge, before holding it up to his eyes and admiring it.

"I knew you could do it Richie!" Ash said as he walked over.

"That battle was so cool! Where did you get an Aerodactyl?" Max asked.

"I got that Aerodactyl years ago while exploring a cave." Flint explained, with Max being amazed at every word.

"I expect to see you two at the Indigo League, you've definitely got the skills to make it that far." Flint said to Ash and Richie, and wished them the best of luck before saying goodbye.

"We actually did it!" Richie yelled once they had exited the gym, who was still in disbelief.

"Don't get too excited Richie, remember we've still got 7 more gym battles left to go." Ash reminded him.

"Don't worry Ash, I'm going to train like crazy, and soon we'll be ready to take down any gym leader!" Richie said, who was full of motivation.

"Speaking of gym leaders, where is the next gym?" Richie asked.

"It's in Cerulean City, and it's a water type gym." Ash explained.

"It's a shame, Pikachu would have been the perfect Pokémon for you in that battle Ash." May said, interrupting the two boys.

"Yeah, I can't wait to start training with Pikachu again!" Ash said.

"Speaking of training, I need to start doing a lot more of it." Richie said, realizing that he would need to step up his game if he wanted to continue winning gym battles.

As they arrived back at May's house, Richie bid them farewell, as he was heading back to his house. After saying goodbye, May, Ash, and Max entered the Maple's home, already exhausted from the day's events.

"So May, I didn't forget about you and Torchic, what did you think about battling together?" Ash asked as he remembered the reason May came along in the first place.

May had nearly forgotten about this herself, as she had been so focused on the boy's battles. Now that she had time to think about, she was able to weigh her options better.

"Like battling is cool and all, I just don't think I can do it. It seems way to intense for me." May explained, trying not accidently offend Ash.

"That's understandable, battling can be overwhelming a lot, even for me sometimes." Ash replied, causing May to relax as she hoped he didn't that she was dissing his profession.

"There are always contests and other things too though, so sometime we'll have to check those out!" Ash said, trying to think of what he could see May doing. The three of them continued chatting for the next half hour before Ash decided to go home. Both Delia and Pikachu were elated to hear about Ash's battle when he returned to Pallet Town, and each spent some time admiring his newly acquired boulder badge.

 **ONE WEEK LATER:**

It had been a week since Ash's first gym battle, and things had continued to be much of the same for the raven-haired trainer. His nights now consisted of hanging out with May, Dawn, and occasionally Gary, which pushed his Pokémon training till later at night, and his homework till the next morning. The four of them all sat at the same lunch table, with Gary chatting away about his upcoming soccer game that would be played later that night. It was now late October, meaning that the soccer season was coming quickly to an end, as the team got ready to play its last regular season game.

"The Kanto Dragons with an astonishing 15-2 Record will play their final game against the Cerulean City Seadra's who's record currently stands at 7-10." The announcer said as the game was about to begin.

As usual Ash, May, and Dawn were in the stands, and had gone to every home game this season. They had picked the right year to watch too, as Gary was having the best soccer season of his life, breaking the school record for assists, and currently was tied with Drew as the leading soccer on the team.

"Again the Dragons are of to the races, 1-0 Kanto High with a quick goal by Brock Harrison, with the assist of course coming from the new record holder Gary Oak!" The announcer said as the crowd went wild. Cerulean City, who was still fighting for a playoff spot, made a valiant comeback in the second half, taking a 3-1 lead.

"Come on guys, just cause we've locked up the number one seed doesn't mean we can slack of here, let's win this one!" Gary said in the huddle trying to keep the team in a championship mindset. Gary's little pep talk worked, as the Dragons started to take control of the game in the closing minutes.

"Drew with the goal with under 5 minutes to go! Kanto high is within one goal of Cerulean City's three!"

The final minutes were spent firing shots left and right at the Seadra's goalkeeper. Every shot was either blocked or bounced off of something, causing close calls left and right for both teams. With the closing seconds ticking down Gary broke through the pack with the ball, with just the goalie standing in his way. Gary slowed down for just a moment, rearing back for a kick, before being slide tackled from behind, as a player from he opposing team had been just able to chase him down. However this did cause a penalty and free kick at the goal for Gary. The time on the scoreboard had just past the usual finishing time, so it was basically now or never for Gary and Kanto High.

The referee placed the ball in front of the goal, as everyone stood watching in anticipation, the crowd dead silent. The referee blew his whistle, and Gary approached the ball, whilst deciding what area of the goal to kick it towards. Gary ran towards the ball and kicked it as hard as he could. The moment the ball left his foot it looked great, the ball flew to the left and goalie had guessed right, diving the opposite way. Everyone in the stands jumped in the air ready to celebrate that is until they hear a loud clank.

The ball had just hit the inner side of the left post, causing it to stop its forward motion, sending it to the right, ultimately stopping on the right side of the goal, just half a foot away from the goal line. The goalie was able to grab the ball and punt it away, causing the game to finally end.

"That's all folks! The Seadra's have won three to two in a close game! The Dragons fall to 15-3, which is still a league best, and the Seadra's record improves to 8-10, which will likely give them the final of the eight available playoff spots. The playoffs will start next week!" The announcer told everyone, as everyone began to file out of the stands. It was Kanto High's first home lose of the year, so it was strange for everyone not to see the typical after game celebrations that they'd become so accustomed too.

Despite the somber mood, the three of them joined up with Gary and still went out to eat afterwards. After a meal filled with lots of silence everyone went off on their separate ways.

Ash returned home and tried to fit in a quick training session with his Pokémon before it got too late. Bulbasaur, Staraptor, and Aipom got most of the attention, considering Froakie and Charizard wouldn't be much help in a water type gym.

"I figured you be out this late." A voice said from behind Ash.

"Gary, what are you doing here?" Ash asked, surprised by his presence.

"Wanna battle?" Gary asked. Ash, one to never turn down a battle, agreed. Gary sent out his Bulbasaur. Ash, not planning on making this battle too serious chose Aipom.

"Ready Ash?" Gary asked, hoping that this battle would get rid of his frustration that had come from the soccer match.

"You bet Gary!" Ash said as he yawned, being tired from the long day. This was one of the rare times that Ash didn't care about a battle. Considering this battle was against Gary, his ultimate rival this pretty uncharacteristic of him.

"Aipom use Swift."

"Counter with Razor Leaf!" Gary called as his the Razor Leaf stopped the Swift attack in its tracks.

"Try using Scratch Aipom." Ash said, only for Aipom to be sent flying by Bulbasaur's Vine Whip. Aipom was able to get up and charged back into the battle, once again being knocked back by a Vine Whip attack. In reality Ash knew several ways to counter this problem, but he kept having Aipom attacking head on, basically handing the match over to Gary as he realized that Gary just needed something to boost his parents.

After a few more hits Aipom was to tired to continue and Ash called him back to his pokeball.

"Geez Ash, I don't think I've ever met a trainer who gets worse over time!" Gary called, teasing Ash's lack of effort in the battle. Ash smirked as the saw the typical cocky smile return to Gary's face.

"I'll see you later Ash, and next time, I want a real battle." Gary said as he turned around and walked away. Ash was so tired it took him a few seconds to realize that Gary had left, and headed inside before collapsing onto his bed.

 **The Next Night**

"Well, here goes nothing!" May said as she brought Torchic out of its pokeball, possibly making a horrible decision. Here she was at the edge of the Viridian forest in the middle of the night. She knew that she needed to bond more with Torchic somehow, and battling with a wild Pokémon would be just the thing to do it. The two of them slowly tiptoed into the forest, pausing whenever they heard a sound or rustling in the bushes, which was every few steps.

"AAAAHHHHHH"

"TOORRRRR"

The two screamed as something came tumbling out of a nearby bush. The two booked it as fast as they could away from that area of the woods, not realizing that they just been scared off by a Metapod.

"Ok Torchic, it's just a Caterpie, this should be easy right?" May said, realizing she had no clue what she was doing.

"Torchic use Peck, I think? That's an attack right?" May said to herself. Thankfully Peck was an actual move an Torchic had already taken off towards the Caterpie. The Caterpie used String Shot and stopped Torchic from getting any closer. The now irritated Caterpie turned its attention towards May, and in a matter of seconds, had used its string shot again and had May tied around a tree. After deciding that it had exacted its revenge, the Caterpie crawled off back into the bushes. May struggled but couldn't seem to budge an inch. She kept trying to force her way out with out success until she heard a sound from behind her. An Ariados came scrambling from behind May, scooped up Torchic, and took of deeper into the forest.

 **The Next Morning**

Ash woke up to the buzzing of his phone. He blindly slapped it, thinking his alarm was going off. He got up and started getting dressed, before checking his phone and realized that May had been trying to call him. May usually never called him this early in the morning, so Ash could tell that something was up. He decided to call her back and see what she wanted.

"ASH!" May yelled, nearly causing Ash to drop his phone.

"What's going on May?" Ash asked while fighting back a yawn.

"I'm stuck! Uh, Viridian Forest! It's a long story, they took Torchic. Come help me please!" May screamed.

"I'll be there as soon as I can!" Ash told her and ran off to grab his pokeballs and was out the door.

Ash booked it as fast as he could towards Viridian City and then to Viridian Forest. It took him nearly 45 Minutes but he made it there nonetheless. As he entered the main entrance of the forest he had no idea where to look, so he just wandered around aimlessly, looking so some sign of May and Torchic.

It wasn't long before he found May, probably because nearly everything within a mile radius could hear May's screaming as she continued to try and break off of the tree.

Ash ran over to her and got there just in time to see her finally break loose of the Caterpie's web and face plant into the ground.

"May are you alright?" Ash asked as helped her off the ground.

"Thank goodness you're here Ash! An Ariados ran off with Torchic, we have to find it!" May said wasting no time before running off in search of her Pokémon. Ash took off trying to catch up with her. Despite their frantic searching, Torchic was nowhere in sight.

"Staraptor, come help us look!" Ash said as he brought out his Pokémon. Staraptor took to the skies and flew around hoping to catch a glimpse of Torchic.

May and Ash searched and searched, but were simply too tired to keep going, as they collapsed near a small opening. After just a minute of rest, May stood back up, ready to begin searching again. She was determined not to let this end up like the first time she had lost Torchic in this forest. She wouldn't give up and cry, this time she would get Torchic back by any means necessary. The two of them were about to return to the deeper part of the forest and search again when Ash's Staraptor returned, initiating them to follow. They took off as Staraptor lead the way around the forest. They were lead into a dense part of the forest; there were no trails in sight. They climbed through tree branches and shrubs, even Staraptor had to walk through, as it was impossible to fly through it at this point. Finally after a slow trek they entered into a large clearing in the middle of the forest.

Their faces lit up with smiles as they saw Torchic sitting next to a tree, that is, before realizing that they had just entered an Ariados nest, and not just one. Ash guessed that there had to be about twenty of them, and they were certainly not happy about them intruding.

"Staraptor, grab Torchic, quickly." Ash whispered.

Staraptor soared in a grabbed Torchic and returned to Ash and May, having to dodge many String Attacks, as the group of Ariados quickly became agitated.

"Let's get out of here!" Ash yelled. They took off stumbling through the branches and bushes of the forest as the Ariados were gaining ground on them quickly. May broke out back onto a main trail first, followed by Staraptor and Torchic. Ash on the otherhand had tripped over a branch, and quickly became surrounded, by the Ariados. Ash sat there, not moving an inch, trying to find a way out of this situation. Ash assessed his current predicament, and then he made his move.


	7. Chapter 7

Ash, realizing that the Ariados were likely going to use String Shot, stood up and jumped straight into the air. As he predicted, the Ariados used String Shot when he stood up. He jumped, dodging their attacks causing them to the other Ariados on the other side of Ash. Ash leaped over the tangled Ariados and ran over towards May and Torchic.

"Let's get out of here!" Ash yelled as he grabbed May and took of down the path leading towards the exit of the forest. They eventually stumbled out of the forest, exhausted from running so much.

"Well that's one way to start a day…" Said Ash, who had originally been hoping for a relaxing day.

"How did you even get here, and what happened?" Ash asked.

"Well, uh…" May started, not wanting to tell Ash cause she felt embarrassed.

"Actually, let's get back to Viridian City first. I don't wanna be this forest any longer." Ash interrupted. The two shared a laugh and returned to Viridian City, ultimately deciding to go to the city park.

They found an empty set of swings and were then finally able to relax.

"So what happened back there?" Asked Ash.

"Oh, well. I thought I'd give Pokémon battling a chance… But you can tell how that ended up." May told him, feeling completely embarrassed.

"Ah, well Virdian Forest isn't exactly the best place for new trainers to be battling, even I don't train there often." Ash replied, making May feel a little better.

" I just feel like I need something to do with Torchic, like you are with your Pokémon." May told him.

"You know May, this might sound odd coming from a Pokémon trainer, but people don't always need to do something with their Pokémon. Sure battling can help build trust and the bond between a Pokémon and its trainer, but you can do that through a variety of ways. Just being friends with Torchic can build that same kind of trust. I know someday you'll find what you really want to do together!" Ash said, trying to give May a little reassurance.

"Thanks Ash, that means a lot." May replied, realizing that she didn't have to rush her bonding with Torchic, but to let it grow naturally over time.

"That reminds me, Dawn wanted to hang out of for a bit today, wanna come along?" May asked him. Ash agreed and they left the park and headed towards Dawn's house. Ash had never seen Dawn's house, and neither had May surprisingly. May just knew the address, so they began looking for the right street. After twenty minutes of having no luck, they decided to just call Dawn so she could come find them.

Dawn told them that she'd drive over and pick them up, meeting them back at the park. Ash and May jumped when Dawn honked the horn of her car, startling them.

"Hi Dawn!" They said as they climbed into the car, before speeding off down the road.

They passed through a set of gates before driving down a long winding road, which led away from the city.

Ash and May's eyes lit up at what they saw. A large mansion and huge yard, surrounded by trees on all sides.

"Woah…" Ash said in amazement. He could only imagine ever living in house this big.

"Wait this is actually your house Dawn?" May asked, in the same state as Ash.

"Yup, home sweet home." Dawn replied nonchalantly.

"Why didn't you tell us you were, um, rich?" May asked, never thinking that Dawn would live in a place like this.

"I've learned that if you let people know that right of the bat they just will use you, but I know I can trust you guys not to say anything." Dawn explained as she parked the car into a garage beside the house.

Dawn led them through the front door of her house, causing a reaction of "oohs" and "ah's" as Ash and May took it all in.

"This place has to be worth a hundred times more than my house!" Ash said as they entered the living room. Dawn kicked off her shoes and jumped on the couch and laid down.

"It's not all that great, trust me it gets pretty boring after a while." Dawn said, causing a look of bewilderment on the others faces.

"Bored? There's so much stuff here I wouldn't be bored for the rest of my life!" Said Ash, who was scared to sit on the furniture since it looked so fancy and expensive.

"How in the world can your family afford this, it must cost a fortune?" May asked.

"Well my dad is pretty high up in a company that manufactures and sells pokeballs. It pays really well but he's always traveling, so I rarely see him. My mom has a pretty good job too." Dawn told them.

"I'm thinking of getting a job too, sitting in this house all my life has gotten really boring. You guys don't have jobs do you?"

"Well aside from Pokémon tournaments, which I've only done once, then no." Ash said.

What about you May?"

"I've never had a job, but my parents keep telling me I should get one soon." May told them.

"Why don't we all get jobs? Even better, lets all work together! Let's find someplace we can all work. Plus Ash is going to need the money if he's going to be traveling around Kanto all year." Dawn said, picturing it all in her head: The three of them working together, oh and maybe even Gary.

"That's actually not a half bad idea." May said, thinking it over.

"Sounds like fun! I say we do it!" Ash said, the other two agreeing with him.

"But we can worry about that later, I wanna see the rest of this house!" Ash said, making Dawn laugh.

 **1 Extensively Long House Tour Later**

"And lastly here is my room." Dawn said as she pushed open the door to her room. The room was surprisingly small compared to the rest of the house, but had a nice view of the backyard, and a small balcony.

"You know Dawn, millions of people can only dream of living like you do, your so lucky!" May said.

"Your right May, but that's why I want to get a job, and eventually get my own house when I'm older, I don't want to be the lazy privileged girl my whole life. You get what I'm saying?" Dawn asked, trying not to feel like a lazy privileged girl.

"Oh ya I know what you mean, and since you brought it up how about we go out and find ourselves a job, its not like we've got anything else to do." May suggested.

"Ok lets go!" Dawn said.

 **The Next Week**

Ash, Dawn, and May sprinted towards their lockers after the final bell rang. Tonight was their first day on the job, and afterwards was Gary's playoff soccer game. They had found a job at a local restaurant in Viridian City. Today would just be a short two or three hour orientation, just to introduce them to everything and figure out what they'd actually be doing there.

"You guys ready?" Dawn asked, who was excited for her first day.

"I don't know, I guess so." May asked, feeling nervous about never having had a job before.

"C'mon May it'll be fun! Not lets hurry before we're late!" Dawn said as they sprinted out to Dawn's car.

They arrived just in time, and met the person they'd be shadowing for the day basically. The restaurant was huge, but it also wasn't small, and there were a lot of things that had to learn and be shown. After nearly a half hour of being shown around, it was time for them to give their actual jobs a shot.

"Ok, I think I'll have all of you try being waiters first. Think you can handle it?"

The three of them nodded nervously, not sure what they were getting themselves into. First they had to change into clothes that were given to them. The girls laughed when Ash walked out, thinking that he looked funny in a suit and tie.

After nearly an hour of doing their best at being a waiter, they were finally pulled aside, done with that job for the day. They hadn't done that bad actually. Dawn was a natural, although it wasn't exactly her dream job, she didn't mind it. May hated it, unfortunately having to deal with some picky customers, and Ash did ok. He forgot a few things here and there, but didn't do half bad. It was clear that it wasn't his favorite position as he was kind of an awkward waiter.

"Ok Ash, lets have you try washing some dishes. Dawn, you can keep on with what your doing, and May, you can come with me." Their boss told them.

Another hour went by. Ash seemed to like this job, he didn't have to worry about anyone else, it was just him and the dishes. Soon enough Ash was given his schedule for the next week and was allowed to leave, shortly followed by Dawn and May. The three of them met outside by Dawn's car, before heading back to Kanto High.

"That wasn't as bad as I was expecting!" Ash said, who surprisingly enjoyed the work.

"I know right, it was actually pretty fun!" Dawn agreed. Meanwhile May sat silently in the passenger seat, who obviously had a rough first day.

"We better hurry if we want to make it before the soccer game starts!" Ash said, so they took of back towards the school.

They arrived just as the game begun, a rematch between the Dragons and the Cerulean City Seadra's, who'd beaten the Dragons just a week ago. Kanto High hadn't played several of its starters that game, so they were sure to be better in today's game.

The Dragons put a lot of pressure on the Seadra's defense right off the bat, missing a couple of good shots at a goal. It wasn't until Gary ended up with the ball that they finally succeeded.

"Gary Oak with the incredible assist to Drew for the first goal of the match! Dragons up by one!"

The crowd was extra loud tonight, cheering the team on the entire game. The first half ended with the Kanto High still up 1-0. If it weren't for them just being unlucky with some shots it would have been a blowout already.

The Dragons came out in the second half ready to fix those mistakes, and Drew scored a second goal, with another goal by Gary shortly after. The Dragons, turning the game into a blowout, dominated the rest of the game.

"That's all folks, The Kanto High Dragons have won the first round match in the playoffs! They defeat the Cerulean City Seadra's by a score of 4-0. Next Tuesday they'll match up against the #4 ranked team, the Pewter City Gravelers!" The announcer said as Kanto High advanced to just its 2nd ever semifinal match.

Typically the three of them and sometimes Gary would hang out after each game, but they were all beat from the day's work, so they all agreed that they hang out over the weekend instead.

Ash woke up early the next morning, and took Delia's car to work. Work wasn't Ash's favorite place to be on a Saturday morning, but he really was starting to enjoy it.

He spotted Dawn as he walked in, who gave him a wave as she was on her way back to her tables. Ash didn't see May anywhere, assuming that she just wasn't working today. Ash went straight to work, being so quick at his job that he often found him self day dreaming, mostly about things like owning a house like Dawn had, which boosted his motivation whenever more dishes appeared before him. Although he wasn't going to get rich by washing dishes his whole life, he started wondering about real jobs that would suit him well. Ash's plan had always been to become a professional Pokémon trainer, however that was really tough to do. As the only major payouts came from the yearly tournament in Kanto, and the top four trainers made a significant amount, enough to make a living until the next year at least. Ash had been getting lazy with his Pokémon training, not being able to fit it in with work, school, and hanging out with friends. In fact it'd been over two days since he'd seen or talked to Pikachu, who was finally starting to recover from his injury.

It was now November, and the chilly wind hit Ash and Dawn as they exited the restaurant and both drove over to Dawn's house. The two rushed inside happy to be out of the cold, and even made some hot chocolate to warm themselves up.

"You didn't see May at work did you?" Ash asked, since he didn't see much from his dishwashing station.

"No, she was off today, but she told she hates it there, not sure why though, I think its fine." Dawn told him.

"Hates it? That's odd. I think its fun, and I'm the one washing dishes all day haha!" Ash joked. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Ash trying out every piece of furniture in Dawn's house and deciding which ones was his favorite. Just as Ash was leaving Gary pulled into the driveway, who was going to the rest of the night with Dawn.

Ash drove back home, who, again being super tired went straight to bed. Ash had the next day off, so he was able to spend some time with Pikachu, and work on some homework. Ash was spending the day relaxing until his phone started vibrating. Ash looked to see a text from May.

After reading the text Ash got up and headed over to May's house, kind of sad that his relaxation session had been interrupted, but he was sure he would have fun at May's house. Turns out it wasn't May who wanted to hang out with him, but Max. May left for work shortly after Ash had arrived, and it was clear to see that she was not looking forward to going back to work. Ash and Max talked for hours about Pokémon and battling. It wasn't till nearly 8 p.m that Ash got a call from his mother wondering where he was. Ash figured he should probably go home and get some sleep.

 **The Next Day**

It was an odd day at Kanto High; May was being unusually quite and almost seemed to be avoiding everyone. Even at lunchtime May was nowhere to be found. She was still at school, so Ash and Dawn were pretty confused as to what was going on. The two met up after school and both had the same idea in their head, they had to figure out why May was acting so strange. Unfortunately they'd have to put that off for another day, as right now they had to go work again.

Ash walked out of work several hours later only to be stopped by Dawn, who happened to be done at the same time.

"Ash!" She said as she pulled him aside.

"So I asked our boss if May was working today. Turns out she doesn't even work here anymore, she quit after the first day!" Dawn told him.

"So that's why we haven't seen her here lately haha. But that doesn't really explain how she was acting today does it?" Ash replied.

"Unless she was scared to tell us for some reason, which I don't think is something that she would do." Dawn suggested.

"But she didn't tell us that she quit, maybe that is like her. Let's ask her about it tomorrow." Ash said.

"Hmm, but the soccer game is tomorrow, why not ask her tonight?" Dawn suggested, deciding that if May was scared or mad at her that it would be better to get this over with tonight.

"Let's drive over to May house then, we can take my car." Ash offered. Dawn hopped into the car and they drove to Pewter City, curious as to what May was up too. They parked down the road and walked together towards the house. It wasn't until they neared the house that things got suspicious, as a car pulled into the driveway of the house.

"Wonder who that is?" Ash asked not paying much attention to it.

"Who knows, lets just get this over with." Dawn said.

A moment later May opened the door and walked out to meet the car, and got in the passenger seat. The car drove backwards off the driveway, and down the road. Ash and Dawn were only able to make out the silhouette of a boy who was driving the car.

"Any guesses who that could be?" Dawn asked.

"No idea. We'll looks like we just missed her, I guess we'll try again tomorrow." Ash said, before Dawn cut him off.

"Not so fast, quick get in the car, we're going to follow them!" Dawn said as she pulled Ash back to the car.

"Dawn, isn't that like really stalkerish? And why are you so concerned about where she's going?" Ash asked.

"I'm not sure. Something just seems fishy." Dawn told him as they started the car.

By now the car had been long gone, so they ended up driving around Pewter City blindly looking for it. After nearly a half hour of looking around they eventually gave up and headed back to Viridian City.

"There it is!" Dawn yelled, causing Ash to flinch and slam on the brakes.

"There's what?" And are you trying to get us killed?"

"The car, its right over there!" Dawn pointed out to Ash. They parked the car and walked over towards the other vehicle, which happened to be next to a restaurant. Neither of them could spot May through the window, so they went back to Ash's car and waited it out. About a half hour later May finally emerged from the restaurant.

"Oh my god!" Dawn said, realizing that May had finally come out.

"Is that Drew with her? There's no way!" Dawn said.

"Why would she be with Drew?" Ash asked questioningly.

"I don't know. But the only reason they'd be out eating together would be if they are on a… on a…. date."

"A date? But they just broke up awhile ago." Ash said.

"Think about it Ash, what else would they be doing here?"


	8. Chapter 8

Several days had passed since that night at the restaurant. Things had slowly begun to return to normal at Kanto High. May was talking to everyone again, although still obvious that she was hiding something. Ash and Dawn hadn't spoken about what they saw since that night. They were the only ones that knew that Drew and May were dating again, trying to figure out why she would date him again, or why they would both be so secretive of it. Not even Drew had said a word about it, which was odd, considering he used to talk about May all the time when they first dated. At this point Ash and Dawn weren't sure if they should just ask May about it or wait and see what happens, so they just decided to stay silent for the time being.

Late one night Ash, not having to work that night, went straight home after school, finally having to time to do something he'd hadn't had time for the past week and a half, Pokémon training. Ash, trying to get as much training in as possible, worked with each of his Pokémon all afternoon, even late into the night. It was nearly midnight before they all collapsed, realizing just how out of shape they'd become.

"Man, this is tougher than I remember!" Ash said as he rested on the grass, as darkness of the night sky covered his surroundings. He knew that he needed to get back into training more often and more intensely, and what better way to do so than with a gym battle. It was decided, Ash would go to Cerulean City and take on the gym leader there, and hoping that it would jumpstart is motivation again. As the Cerulean City gym was a water type gym, it would be nice to have Pikachu who was now starting to slowly recover from his injury, however Ash knew that he could do well enough with the other members of his team.

The next morning before school Ash mentioned to his mom that he was planning to go Cerulean City the next weekend, which Delia was happy to hear. She had wanted to get some shopping done anyways, and the new Cerulean Mall had just opened, so she'd been dying to check it out, so they'd both go together.

The seconds felt like minutes to Ash as the rest of the school day went along. Now that he'd hyped himself up for the gym battle, he'd have to wait till the end of the week for it. At least he had Gary's next soccer match to look forward to that night. In fact the whole school was excited for the game, it was just the second time Kanto High had made it to a semi-final match, so it was a pretty big deal.

 **Later that night**

The stands were packed as usual for the soccer match, despite the heavy downpour of rain, which would last the entire night, making both watching and playing the game much more difficult. Ash, May, and Dawn were covered in layers of hoodies and jackets, in a futile attempt to stay dry.

"I can barely see the field!" Dawn said, as the level of visibility was low, as the rain was blowing right towards them.

Despite barely anyone being able to him due to the rain and wind, the announcer gave his usual pregame speech.

"Welcome to the semi-final round matchup between the number one seed, your own Kanto High Dragons! They will face the fourth ranked Pewter City Gravelers. The winner of this match will go to the championship match, so we are in for one exciting duel!"

The whistle was blown and the Gravelers started out with the ball. A couple successful passes later and they were already in position for a shot, only for to slip on the wet grass, giving the Dragons a lucky break they normally wouldn't get. The disadvantage went both ways however, as both teams struggled to go anywhere with the ball.

As the 20th minute approached, Gary saw his chance. The defender challenging him slipped, letting Gary run right by him. Gary saw Brock Harrison across the field, in great position. Gary kicked a near perfect cross over everyone's heads except Brock's. Unfortunately the rain struck again, the field was basically a mud field at this point, and Brock whiped out before even attempting to jump for the ball. Both teams were beginning to become extremely frustrated as the game only continued to get tougher as time went on. After some more time of meaningless kicking back and forth around midfield, the first half ended, with both team covered in rain and mud, both frustrated and disappointed.

"What the heck are we supposed to do, no one can even make a pass without getting hit by a mud slide!" Gary complained in the huddle. Neither coach of either team had much of an answer either, they'd never seen a field this bad In their coaching and playing careers, frankly they were surprised the game hadn't been cancelled.

Meanwhile on the stands, it seemed like everyone was asleep. The crowd hadn't made a peep since the beginning of the game; in fact some had gone back to their cars to get out of the rain, seeing no point in watching this boring of a game.

The weather only continued to rage even harder as the second half began after a seemingly eternally long halftime. As hard as both team tried, the result was always the same, with very little action happening until there was about 15 minutes left to play.

Realizing that trying to advance the ball with passes was pointless, one of Pewter City's forwards straight up launched the ball from just past mid field towards Kanto High's goal. With such low visibility due to the rain, and the fact that neither goalie had even touched the ball to this point, the Dragons goalie was caught off guard as the ball soared right past him and into the back of the net.

1-0 Gravelers lead.

Everyone in the stands sighed, they didn't think this game could get any worse. Aside from the horrible weather it was looking like Kanto High was going lose the game as well.

Gary pulled the forwards into a huddle, trying to regroup and try to tie the game up.

"Look guys, I'm not exactly sure how we're supposed to put that ball in the net, but its possible. All those games we won in the regular season won't mean a thing if we can't win this game. We got fifteen minutes left, let's win this sucker!" Gary said as he slapped everyone on the back.

Play resumed as a newly motivated Dragons team pushed the ball down the field with more intensity. It was still sloppy play, which was impossible to avoid at this point, but they were staying on the offensive for a good while.

Gary sent a pass in towards the goal, placing it perfectly for Brock. Brock's shot looked good, until skimming the crossbar and sailing out of bounds. Despite the miss it made them realize they could actually score a goal. However, time was starting to run low.

5 Minutes left.

A few plays later and the ball had rolled out of bounds off of the Graveler's, giving Kanto High a corner kick.

Despite being the best passer in school history, Gary passed on taking the corner kick. He wanted to make a play on the ball, so Brock elected to take the kick. He sent the ball dropping in just feet from the goal, giving Gary a perfect opportunity to head it in. However Drew had the same idea, and the goalie was in hot pursuit as well. The three all collided and fell to the ground.

It wasn't until the cheers came from the crowd that they realized what had happened, the ball had bounced off them and rolled into the corner of the goal

1-1 Tie Game.

With a few minutes left in the game, neither team seemed to want to take any chances and try to score another goal, and just wait for extra minutes. As the final minute counted down, they Graveler's just passed the ball back and forth, waiting for the referee's to blow the whistle.

Gary Oak had other plans.

Realizing that they could stop the game at any second, Gary sprinted in towards the ball, catching the other team off guard. He successfully stole the ball at midfield, and sent it sailing with the hardest kick he could muster. The shot was almost like a laser, considering how fast it went. While it was tough for everyone to see what happened, it was nothing short of a miracle.

The goalie jumped into the air to swat it down, only missing by a few inches. The ball bounced off the top crossbar, right into the airborne goalie's back, and back into the net of the goal.

Everyone went wild; Gary had just hit the shot of his life, giving Kanto High a 2-1 lead. However, the Graveler's would have one last chance to answer.

Play resumed as the Graveler's struggled to get the ball moving anywhere, ultimately resorting to a hail mary kick like Gary had just done. Gary saw this coming and simply dove in front of the ball, blocking the shot.

The sound of the referee's whistle sounded, ending the game. Gary sat up, only to be knocked back down as the rest of the team piled on top of him in celebration.

"That's it! Unbelievably the Dragons have come back to win the game 2-1! They will play for the championship title next week!" The announcer said as the celebrations continued.

Ash watched from the bleachers with a smile on his face. Eventually the ruckus died down and he was able to meet up with the girls in the parking lot, as Gary had gone off to celebrate with his teammates.

As the rest of the week went by Ash made sure that he would be ready for his next gym battle, making sure to train for a couple hours each night with his Pokémon.

"Hmm, if the Cerulean gym is a water type, then Staraptor, Aipom, Froakie, and Bulbasaur would be the best options. You guys feel ready?" Ash asked his Pokémon, who cheerfully responded, ready for another battle.

"Don't worry Charizard, I'll get you in a battle soon enough." Ash said, who had wanted to battle with Charizard, but his first two gym battles had the type advantage over Charizard unfortunately.

Soon enough the weekend had come, and it was time for Ash and Delia to head over to Cerulean City. Despite it being just an hour away, Ash hadn't been there in over a year, and a lot had changed in that time. The city had nearly doubled in size with a lot more tourists, thanks to the new mall that they were going to visit.

After navigating through the unexpected waves of traffic, they were finally able to find the mall, and take in the sheer size of the building.

"There has to be nearly a hundred stores in there!" Ash said.

"I know, this is going to be so much fun! So many places to shop and look at!" Delia replied, causing Ash to sigh, not sure if he'd be able to get his mom out of the mall in time to make it to his gym battle later.

The two entered the mall, but it looked more like a maze, with multiple floors and stores along every wall. Ash had been dreading going here but his attitude quickly changed when he spotted several stores that catered to Pokémon trainers. So Ash decided to go check all of them out while Delia went to look at clothing stores mostly.

Ash walked into the shop closest to him, and began browsing the endless aisles of training gear and equipment. In front of him were many things, from different kinds of pokeball's, too attachment accessories for backpacks and pokeball belts. Ash grabbed a few small gadgets off the shelves as he went, and purchased them before heading onto the next store.

This continued until Ash realized that he had run out of money, making for one awkward scene at the checkout line, as he had to do the walk of shame back to each aisle and return his items. He was at least happy with everything he had already bought; now beginning to understand why girls liked shopping so much.

Meanwhile Delia was having the time of her life, trying on different outfits at a record pace. She even entered several raffle ticket drawings for the fun of it; it sure had been a long time since she went on a shopping spree like this.

After several hours, the two ended up running into each other in-between stores, both exhausted from how much walking they each had done. By now it was already late in the afternoon, and they were both starving. They found a restaurant in the mall that served seafood, which is what Cerulean City is famous for.

As they finished their meals and began to get up from their chairs a voice came over the speakers in the mall.

"The raffle ticket lottery for the all inclusive Alolan vacation has ended, and a winner has been chosen! The winning ticket is 5-4-7-2-8. If you are the owner of this tickets please return it the information desk to claim the prize! Congratulations!"

Delia instantly grabbed her tickets from her purse. She always got a thrill from buying lottery tickets and entering contests, the idea of winning one always makes her excited. She pulled out her three tickets and started reading their numbers aloud.

"Ok,

5

4

7

2

9…. Oh come on!" Delia said, disappointed that she was just one number off, but the realization that she still had two more tickets brought her spirits right back up.

"Um…

5

4

6…. Nope!" She said as she tossed the ticket into the trash, and reading her final ticket.

"5

4

7

2

8.

5-4-7-2-8." Delia said, noticing something peculiar about the ticket but having trouble figuring it out what is was.

"Wait what was the number it was supposed to be?" Delia asked.

"It was 5-4-7-2 um… 8 I think? Ya it was 8." Ash said, looking at his mother.

Ash watched as his mother turned as white as a ghost, who sat down, looking like she was about to pass out. Ash stepped over and grabbed the ticket out of her hand.

5-4-7-2-8.

"Mom! You did it! That's the winning ticket!" Ash shouted, having to nearly drag Delia out of her seat and get her to walk with him to the information desk.

Eventually they found there way over to the desk, Delia still speechless. Ash handed the lady behind the counter the ticket. After getting Delia to sign several things, they were told that they would be contacted soon for more information. But the vacation would we over Christmas for 2 whole weeks.

After all this excitement, Ash realized that he wouldn't have time to have his gym battle today, and decided to put it off till tomorrow. They then found a hotel to stay in for the night. Delia and Ash each laid on their beds daydreaming, Delia thinking about lying in the sun relaxing, and having fancy alolan drinks. Ash on the other hand, was thinking about all the different Pokémon that he'd be able to see in Alola, remembering the Litten that Gary owned and had battled against him with.

 **The Next Day**

After a good nights sleep, Ash was up early the next morning excited for his gym battle, but even more still excited for the free vacation they'd just one, but that was still some time away so Ash tried to keep his mind on Pokémon battles.

The rays of the rising sun peaked through the window curtains, giving Ash some energy after the long day yesterday.

"Ready for your battle Ash?" Delia asked, stepping out of the bathroom.

"As ready as I can be, I think that…" Ash said as a low growling sound cut him off, which he realized was his stomach.

"Uh, maybe we should get some breakfast first." Ash said, making Delia laugh.

After some bacon and eggs, Ash was finally ready to go, and they got in the car and headed towards the gym. They spotted the gym, which was a huge building in the center of the city.

The two entered the gym, which seemed rather busy for a normal gym, as people seemed to be flowing in by the dozens. It wasn't till Ash asked someone what was going on did he know what was happening.

"Oh, haven't you heard? They're doing water shows here on the weekends, everyone loves them!" A woman told them, before she went off to buy her tickets.

"Well if I can't have my battle now, might as well check out this show thing?" Ash suggested.

"That's a wonderful idea Ash, I'll go buy us two tickets." Delia said as she tried to find a way into the ticket line. She emerged several minutes later with two tickets in her hand. They handed over their tickets and were ushered into the arena, which was much larger than Ash was expecting. There was a large pool of water in the center of the arena, with stands surrounding it on all sides. The place was nearly packed full by the time they arrived, so they hurried to find a seat. Just a few minutes later every seat had been filled and the show began. From somewhere beneath the pool of water was a small door, from which the performers and Pokémon emerged as they swam to the surface of the water. As the cheers of the crowd died down music started to play from the speakers placed in various spots around the arena.

In a flash there was splashes of water, with Pokémon and people moving all around the water, in sync with the music. Soon the performers were being tossed around in the air with several of the Pokémon's water gun attacks. This and other acrobatic stunts and dives were performed for the next hour, before the show finally finished. At the end of the show, the gym leader, also one of the main performers, thanked the audience for coming.

"Hmm, so that's the gym leader." Ash said, hoping to find a way to ask her to battle after the show.

Eventually the audience began to leave after giving a well-deserved standing ovation. Ash waited till everyone had left before walking back towards the entrance area. After waiting for some time he began to realize that the gym leader might not even exit this way, so he just decided to talk to the lady who had been selling the tickets earlier.

"Oh, the gym leader doesn't accept challengers on the weekends, she puts all her focus on her shows during this time. Just come back anytime during the week if you want to battle her." She told Ash, noticing the disappointment on his face.

"Well that was a waste of a weekend." Ash said as him and Delia walked out the front doors.

"A waste? You can have your gym battle anytime, but its not everyday you win a free vacation in Alola!" Delia reminded him, slightly boosting his spirits.

The two spent the rest of the evening walking around town looking for things to do. They didn't have much success, until Ash notice someone in the distance. It was Richie.

"Richie!" Ash shouted. Richie turned around and waved back.

"What are you doing here Ash?" Richie asked him.

"Well I was going to have a gym battle today but…"

"No gym battles on the weekends. Found that out yesterday as well." Richie said, cutting Ash off.

"You too huh." Ash replied, the two laughing together.

"Ya, I was looking forward too a good battle, its been a while." Richie told him, an idea forming in his mind.

"Hey Ash! You want to battle? Just to get warmed up like we did before our first gym battle." He asked.

"Of course, a trainer can never turn down a battle!" Ash replied, excited by the idea.

Richie rode with Ash and Delia over to a nearby park, deciding that it was a suitable spot for a quick battle. They found a small opening, and took their places.

"One on one sound good to you?" Ash asked.

"Sounds good to me!" Richie replied, ready to go.

"Charizard your up!" Ash said, fulfilling his promise of getting Charizard in a battle soon.

"Ok then, I choose you Larvitar!" Richie said, brining out his Pokémon.

"Let's do this Ash!"

"You bet Richie! You can take the first move!"

"Larvitar, start with sandstorm!"


	9. Chapter 9

"You did great Larvitar, maybe next time we'll beat him," Richie said as he put his fainted Pokémon back into its Pokeball.

"That was a good battle Ash, let's train together again sometime, but I've got to get going now, see you later!"

Ash watched as Richie walked off down the road, happy with how his Charizard had battled.

"Well then, let's say we get on our way back home!" Delia suggested.

Ash nodded with a sigh, he was exhausted after such a long and exciting day.

 **The Next Day**

Ash, Gary, and Dawn all piled into Dawn's car and zoomed out of the parking lot, free from the confines of Kanto High for the rest of the night. Ash had told Dawn about the mall at Cerulean City, so of course, she dragged Gary along and even brought Ash so that he would have a chance to battle the gym leader.

"Where's May at?" Gary asked as they sped through Viridian City.

"She's "Busy" tonight apparently," Dawn said sarcastically.

"What does that mean?" Gary replied.

"Maybe she just has lots of homework?" Ash suggested.

"Oh please, Ash. You know May, she's probably got all her homework for the entire semester done already." Dawn replied.

"Probably hanging out with that sleazebag Drew again." She said in disgust.

"Wait a minute, I thought those two broke up?" Gary asked in confusion.

"They did, but now it seems they're back together again, and May refuses to talk about it." Dawn said, her mood quickly turning angry.

"I could talk to Drew about it," Gary suggested.

"Well after the championship game at least, wouldn't want any drama going on before the biggest game of the year."

"No! If May wants to be our friend she can tell us about it herself!" Dawn said, before making a sharp right turn and speeding down the road towards her house.

Ash sat silently in the back taking in everything the two were saying. In the end, he did have to take Dawn's side on this situation. May really should have said something to them.

The car stopped abruptly at Dawn's house.

"Why did you drive back here?" Gary asked.

"I'm not going anymore, you two can go if you like!" Dawn said as she got out and slammed her door shut, causing the two boys to jump back in their seats.

"Jeez, I've never seen Dawn act like that before," Ash said.

"Must just be a girl thing?" Gary guessed.

"Must be that time of the month if you get what I'm saying, Ash"

"Uh, Gary…." Ash said as he pointed to the car windows that were still open.

"Oh fuck!" Gary whispered as he stared at the floor of the car.

Ash looked up to see Dawn, who was still standing near the car, spin around, face blood red, walk slowly towards the passenger side where Gary was sitting and say:

"GARY MOTHERFUCKING OAK, I SWEAR…."

Ash hid in the back as Dawn spewed more curse words than Ash had ever heard in this entire life combined at Gary while wrestling with him.

A minute later they found themselves out of the car on the ground with Dawn having Gary in a chokehold, while Ash hid behind a tree about 20 feet away.

Gary escaped Dawn's grasp and made a break for his car, which was several feet away. He hopped in and drove backward although out her driveway, nearly hitting several trees on the way.

Ash sighed, relieved that Gary was able to get away from Dawn's rage, at least, that was until Ash realized Gary had left him behind.

It wasn't until Dawn fell to her knees and started crying that Ash felt safe enough to reveal himself.

"Are… are you okay Dawn?" Ash asked softly as he approached her. Dawn, forgetting that Ash was even there, looked up in surprise, allowing him to see the tears streaming down her face.

Dawn didn't know how to feel about everything that had just happened. Why was she so upset about what May was doing, it wasn't her problems really. Why she snapped so badly at Gary's comment. Usually, she could handle Gary's sense of humor but this time he'd spoken at a bad moment. Now she was mad at not only May and Gary, but herself as well. Ash was the only she didn't hate at the moment.

Ash grabbed Dawn's hand and pulled her to her feet. Ash pulled Dawn close as they hugged, sensing how much she was hurting right now. The comfort of another person was refreshing to Dawn, making her feel better for a moment before bad thoughts returned back to her mind.

Nearly a minute had passed before Dawn began to quiet down before another wave of emotions hit her. Not even thinking about what she was doing she separated herself from Ash. She then grabbed him by his collar, pulled him back towards her and kissed him. Dawn didn't care who it was she was kissing, she just needed something to comfort her. As their lips met Ash's eyes bulged, trying to take in what was happening. The kiss only lasted about 2 seconds. Dawn looked up and seeing the shock on Ash's face made her realize what she'd done. She turned around, bawling her eyes out, and sprinted back inside her house.

Ash stood speechless, his mind was blank. He tried to comprehend what had just happened but he was still in shock. After a minute of thinking things through he went on knocked on the front door.

"Dawn…" Ash said, trying several more times but getting no reply.

Ash eventually walked all the way back to Pallet Town, giving him time to sort out everything that happened. Even after he reached home he was still confused, not even his Pokémon could take his mind off of the day's events. Why had Dawn kissed him?

Dawn continued to sob for the rest of the evening. What had she done? She'd pushed May away, snapped at Gary and nearly beat him to a pulp, and then went off and kissed Ash. She really messed things up and didn't know if she'd ever be able to fix them.

 **Tuesday**

The school was quiet, May and Ash didn't say a word to each other. Gary talked to Ash a little, only to ask about Dawn, as she was nowhere to be found that day. Ash made no mention of what happened after Gary left, figuring it might ruin their relationship. Everyone seemed to be divided. Gary was particularly stressed, as he was already nervous about the school's soccer championship game on Thursday, now he was dealing with Dawn's issues as well.

Ash, despite being very nervous, decided to go to Dawn's house to see if she was alright, and to get some answers.

Knock, knock, knock.

Dawn walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. She sighed when she saw Ash, but decided to open the door anyway, figuring that she may as well get things sorted out as quickly as possible.

"Hey, Ash…" She said softly,

"Come on in," Dawn said as she led him into the other room, before sitting on the couch.

"So…" Ash trailed off, not exactly sure how to bring things up.

"I'm sorry Ash," Dawn said, refusing to make eye contact.

"Sorry for what?"

"Everything. I was wrong about everything. I'm sorry about yesterday. I was mad because of May, and Gary just tipped me over the edge, tell him I'm sorry will you?" Dawn explained.

"You know, if you want things to be right with Gary you should talk to him yourself really," Ash suggested.

"Your right, I'll talk to May as well, I just hate seeing a friend make such a bad decision." She said.

"Dawn, can I ask you something?" Ash said.

"Fire away."

"Why-why did you- uh-you know- kiss me yesterday?" Asked Ash, saying the last part quickly as things were getting awkward.

"Oh… That was my emotions taking over."

"Your emotions?" Ash asked, both confused and worried by what she meant.

"I was such a mess and I couldn't think straight, and you were the only one who understood me, you helped and comforted me, so thank you for that," Dawn said.

"Uh ok," Ash said, not really sure what to think as Dawn's answer wasn't very clear.

"It's not like I have feelings for you or anything like that if that's what you're wondering, I still like Gary." She said as Ash sighed in relief.

"Doesn't mean I didn't like it." She said, making Ash jump.

"Sorry, that was awkward. I'm mean it was, um... You're not a half bad kisser, no um. Fuck, I mean, I don't have feelings for you, I already made that clear, but the kiss was nice at the time. Can we just forget that that or this never happened and move on?" Dawn asked, trying not to make herself look any stupider.

"I'm certainly ok with that," Ash said.

"Well, at least things are alright between us now, no matter how awkward I made it." She said with a smile. Ash chuckled in return.

"So what do we wanna do about May?" Ash asked.

"Let's wait till tomorrow, we can talk to her after school. If we at least be nice about it she might actually tell us something."

"Good idea, I should probably get home soon, I still have to get my Pokémon ready for a gym battle soon," Ash said as he realized that they'd been talking for quite some time.

After saying goodbye Ash set off for Pallet town. Both Dawn and Ash were happy at how their meeting had gone, things were mostly back to normal now. Ash's good mood helped out his training, as he worked extra hard with his Pokémon that night. Ash also no longer needed to worry about working; he had decided that work interfered too much with his training, so he gave up his job to pursue battling.

 **The Next Day**

Today was the first day of November. Ash was reminded of this by the gust of cold wind that hit his face as he walked out the door. By now Pikachu had nearly recovered from its injury, now being able to walk and run around. Nurse Joy had still recommended that they take it easy for another week or two, before getting back to battling. This made Ash even more excited for his next gym battle, although that would have to wait for a little while longer.

Another day of school passed. By now Ash's fame from the beginning of the school year had died down, with mostly everyone focusing on the soccer teams upcoming game. Ash hadn't seen Gary this nervous before, and the game was still a day away. After school Ash and Dawn drove over to May's house, finally trying to talk to her about Drew.

"Ready?" Ash asked, as Dawn nodded and proceeded to knock on the door. It was not May, but Max who answered the door, who once again began spewing an onslaught of Pokémon related questions his way.

"Uh, we're here to see May," Ash said, making Max sigh in disappointment.

"But maybe afterward we can talk about Pokémon," Ash said, causing Max to get excited again as he ran off to find his sister.

Moments later May came walking down the stairs and greeted the two of them.

After the usual hellos and whats ups of the conversations, Dawn got straight to business.

"May we know about you and Drew." She said. Just from her tone of voice Ash already knew things could go bad, as he could tell that she was wasn't happy.

"Um, know what about me and Drew?" May asked. Ash couldn't tell if she was being serious or if she was just acting dumb about it. Dawn certainly thought the later as she said:

"We saw you and Drew at the restaurant that night, we know why you've been avoiding us, cause you two are dating again am I right?" Dawn said, with an "I told you so" sort of smirk.

"No Dawn, we aren't dating?" May replied, causing Dawn to look back in shock.

"But-But we saw you with him, what else could you have been doing?" She asked, confused.

"Look, let me explain. First of all, I'm not sure how you guys saw me and Drew in the first place but that's beside the point. Yes, we were on a date, Drew came over one night and was begging for forgiveness, saying that he still loved me and that he made a mistake earlier. So I gave him a second chance. We went on a few dates, and I tried to hide it from you guys cause I knew you didn't like him. But no need to worry, I don't like him either, and I told him that too, he and I are officially done." May stopped, allowing them to process this information.

"Oh…" Dawn said quietly.

"So that means you aren't that stupid after all!" She said in excitement as she jumped up and hugged May.

"I guess not," May said with a sigh. Just then Torchic came running in from the other room.

"Torr!" It squealed as it recognized Ash and ran over to him.

"Long time no see Torchic!" Ash said as Torchic rubbed itself against Ash's leg.

"Hey Ash, wanna have a battle?" May asked, catching Ash off guard.

"A battle?" May had never expressed an interest in battling before, so this peaked Ash's interest.

"Yup, I want to see how much Torchic and I have grown together!" May said with a look of determination.

"It's a deal then!" Ash said.

They all went out to the backyard, which was pretty small, but still large enough for battle.

"Aipom come on out," Ash said as the purple monkey appeared on the grass.

"Ready Torchic! Don't go easy on me Ash!" May said.

"Alright, but you asked for it!" Ash said with a laugh.

"Torchic use tackle!"

"Jump and use swift!" Ash said. With that Aipom leaped above Torchic and sent it flying back with swift.

"Use ember Torchic!"

"Dodge Aipom. Wow a new move May, that's awesome!" Ash said, able to tell that May and Torchic were really growing well together.

"Use Fury Swipes, then use your tail!" Aipom attacked Torchic in rapid succession, before sending it flying after hitting Torchic with its tail.

"Well, that's that!" Ash said as May tended to Torchic.

"Thanks, Ash!" May said.

"No problem lets battle again sometime!"

 **The Next Day**

"Well, this is it folks! The Kanto Dragons who ended the regular season with a record of 15-2, will face the Vermillion City Voltorb's who have a regular season record of 14-3, just one game behind the Dragons. Thanks to that, the Dragons have home-field advantage here at Kanto High for the regional championship! The announcer said as the stands were beyond packed. The two best teams in the Kanto region were about to go head to head for the title. Gary ran back and forth on the sideline, too pumped up to be sitting around.

Since Gary was the team captain, he pulled the other guys into a huddle.

"This is it guys, everything we worked for is on the line tonight! Let's make it all worth it!" With a collective cheer, they broke out of the huddle and took to the field. The Kanto High crowd went wild, shortly followed by loud cheers from the other side of the field, as many Vermillion City fans had traveled here for the game.

"Here we go folks, let's get this match started!" The announcer said.

Being team captain, Gary ran out to center field to meet the Voltorb's team captain and the refs for the coin toss.

"Welcome to the championship game boys, best of luck to you both!" The referee said before continuing.

"Now for the coin flip, here is heads, and here is tails." He said as he showed them each side of the coin.

"Since Vermillion City is the visiting team they get to call it, they then can choose to kick off first, or to defend a specific goal. What is your call?" He asked. The Vermillion City captain stepped forward and chose tails.

"It is tails, do you want the ball first or to defend a goal?"

"We'll defend the east goal." He said.

"Alright then, Dragons will kick off first."

After lining up the referee blew his whistle signaling the beginning of the game. The dragons had the wind going they're way for the first half; obviously a strategy for the Voltorb's to have it during the 2nd half.

Brock Harrison passed the ball to Drew to start things off, who then passed it over to Gary.

Feeling the rush of adrenaline through his body, Gary dribbled past one defender and sent the ball flying. It curved off to the left side of the goal. Luckily Brock had gone charging down the field and made a diving header, bouncing it right into the back of the net. The crowd went absolutely crazy.

"Wow, A goal by the Dragons in the opening seconds, I don't know if we've ever seen a goal like that before!" The announcer said. The Voltorb's didn't look fazed at all, however, as they lined back up for the kickoff.

The Voltorb's were fast, like really fast. Just 10 Minutes into the game, the Dragons were starting to get gassed. They hadn't allowed any goals, but it was shot after shot on goal for the Voltorb's as the Dragons couldn't quite keep up with them.

 **20** **th** **Minute**

A Vermillion City forward took the ball at midfield and wove around every defender in his way, not even Gary could keep up with him. With a smirk of confidence, it was just him and the goalie. He faked a kick to the left before quickly switching back to the other side of his foot, throwing the goalie off. The ball rolled effortlessly into the goal. 1-1 Tie game.

 **40** **th** **Minute**

The Dragons were dragging along slowly, the speed and endurance of the Voltorb's were too much for them to handle, as the onslaught of offense attacks continued, the Vermillion City forwards had a field day taking shots on goal, sinking another before the end of the half.

The whistle finally blew signifying the end of the first half, the Voltorb's leading 2-1. Everyone from Dragons collapsed after making their way to the sideline. They were dead tired, feeling like they'd played through two entire games already. To make matters worse they would now be playing into the wind in the 2nd half.

Ash, May, and Dawn sat nervously in the stands, along with the rest of the Kanto High crowd.

"Boy Vermillion City sure does live up to the hype, they're good," Dawn said as they waited for the next half to begin.

"Ya, I'm not sure how they're going to be able to keep up with them." Said Ash.

 **Start of 2** **nd** **half**

"Let's get things started once again folks! The Voltorb's lead the Dragons 2-1, with 45 min of action left to decide a winner, so let's get this show on the road!" The announcer said as the teams retook the field.

The whistle blew and the Voltorb's started things right where they left off, speeding up and down the field, moving even faster now with the wind at their backs. Gary, usually playing mostly on offense, had taken a defensive role to start this half. With the focus on defense, they were able to handle the Voltorb's offense better, without wasting as much energy.

The sunset during which the game was begun had now fully disappeared as night fell. The wind chilled everyone as the temperature dropped heavily. To those on the field, it was like a refreshing breath of air, cooling the sweat that dripped from their bodies.

Gary was substituted out near the 60th minute, giving him one more rest before the final stretch of the game. He talked with his other teammates resting with him while he waited to return to the game.

"Man, we need to find some way to score a goal, we haven't got the ball past midfield once." He said, hoping for someone to give him a clever idea. Unfortunately, no response came, the team was stumped, as was Gary. How could they score?

 **75** **th** **Minute**

Drew broke away from the final defender; he had taken a chance and had managed to maneuver around every Vermillion City defender, stumbling along the way, as the defense had messed up his footwork. He pulled his leg back and fired a shot on goal, which was stopped right in its track by the goalie, who with a flick of his foot sent the ball flying straight back the way it came, making Drew's efforts for nothing.

 **80** **th** **Minute**

The Dragons were running out of steam once again, still trailing by one goal. With just under ten minutes to play, Gary knew he had to take control of the game. Taking the ball and sprinting towards the other end of the field, Gary pulled off some of the most ridiculous maneuvers anyone had ever seen. Dribbling between the legs of defenders, throwing a spin move in there to confuse them. It was like watching a professional against a bunch of 5-year-olds. Gary used every risky tactic he could think of, and they all paid off. With 3 defenders left, he faked a move to the left and pulled off a move that stunned everyone, both players, and fans, Gary tapped the ball through the defender's legs and followed by sliding right under them as well. He stood up and continued his pursuit. Brock ran down the other side of the goal, keeping one of the two remaining defenders busy, leaving one person left for Gary to beat.

Gary looked towards Brock, noticing the defender facing the other way. Gary approached the last defender and sent a kick towards the direction of Brock. Brock saw this but could do nothing; Gary's kick was far too low to make over the defender in front of him. Luckily for him, this was Gary's plan all along, a total long shot, but it worked. The ball sailed right into the back of the defender near Brock and bounced ahead back in line with Gary's path to the goal. The defender on Gary turned around stunned, as Gary had continued running and retook possession of the ball, with just the goalie in his way.

Gary let the ball roll while moving his foot from side to side of the ball, trying to confuse the goalie, who didn't seem to flinch an inch. Gary, knowing he'd need to do better, moved to the center of the goal. He faked a kick with his right foot and then planted it firmly into the ground on the left side of the ball. Gary then whipped his left foot around the back of his right leg, kicking the ball the opposite direction. It was too late for the goalie to realize what Gary had done, and even with his best diving attempt, he was unable to reach the ball as it rolled into the corner of the goal.

"Incredible! Gary Oak has tied the game on the most amazing drive to the goal I've ever seen!" The crowd roared, not entirely sure what they'd just witnessed.

"The game is tied 2-2! With 5 minutes left, we might be looking at overtime ladies and gentlemen!"

Gary ran back, being showered with hugs and pats on the back by his teammates. Gary ignored all this, as his mind was already back to focusing on defense, figuring that if they could hold Vermillion City off until overtime, the extra rest might give them a chance.

Gary's adrenaline continued to help him as he sprinted back and forth from each end of the field, following the ball wherever it went. While the ball stayed on their end of the field, the Voltorb's couldn't do anything with the ball, and they simply resorted to punting the ball back and forth until the refs blew the whistle, which meant overtime.

"Overtime will be a 15 minute period, if no winner is decided at the end of it, then we will go to a shootout!" The announcer said as everyone waited in anticipation.

The overtime began with the Dragons taking charge right from the start. Gary placed several passes perfectly towards Drew and Brock, but neither could convert. Vermillion City answered right back, pushing the ball closer and closer towards the Dragons goal.

The majority of the overtime was spent with both teams taking long-range shots, praying for one to go in. The Voltorb's continued to outrun the Dragons, but Kanto High's goalkeeper was playing at his best today, stopping nearly every shot that came his way.

With the final minute of overtime nearing its end, the Voltorb's made one final push, weaving through every defender the Dragons could throw at them, and sent a shot towards the right side of the goal, fast enough that the goalie wouldn't be able to reach it. Everyone looked on in horror as it looked like Vermillion City was about to take the championship. Gary closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable roar of cheers that would come from the Voltorb's bench, but it never came. Instead, he heard a loud clang, as the ball had just barely hit the side post, causing a scramble for the ball. The goalie for Kanto High somehow came out of it with the ball and sent it sailing back towards midfield. The referees decided this was enough and blew the whistle once again.

"That's all for overtime folks, it'll come down to penalty kicks to decide a champion, 5 kick for each team!" The announcer's voice echoed around the field as each team chose its 5 best players who would take the kicks.

"Since the Voltorb's are the visiting team they will kick first, while Kanto High will defend first."

The first player from the Voltorb's ran over and placed the ball between himself and the goal. He took several steps back, then charged forward, swinging his foot right through the ball. The goalie jumped but couldn't make it in time. Vermillion City leads 1-0, thanks to a perfect kick straight in the upper left corner of the goal. Kanto High's first kicker tried to send it right down the middle, hoping that the goalie wouldn't expect it. However, the Voltorb's goalie reacted perfectly, deflecting it with his hands, still 1-0.

Another goal by the Voltorb's, followed by a goal by the Dragons next kicker made the score stand at 2-1, with just 3 kicks left for each team.

The Voltorb's 3rd kick should have gone in, but was just an inch high and hit the top crossbar, giving Kanto High a chance to tie things up.

The crowd cheered as Brock Harrison ran out to take the next kick, everyone on the edge of their seats. Brock sent his shot rolling along the ground directly at the corner of the goal, beating the goalies diving effort by mere inches. The Kanto High stands cheered as Brock celebrated his goal. It was all tied at two, with two kicks left.

The Voltorb's weren't fazed in the slightest, nearly answering with another goal of their own, but was saved by a lucky guess from the Dragons goalie. Drew was up to take the 2nd to last kick for the Dragons. Drew, one of the best offensive players on the team, had plenty of experience with penalty kicks. Confident with his abilities he wasted no time in placing a perfect kick in the top right corner of the goal. The smirk on his face was wiped off his face, however, as he watched as the Voltorb's goalie made a superhuman jump to swat the ball out of the goal. It was all tied 2-2, with one kick left for each team.

The Voltorb's best kicker came out; the look on his face meant business. Gary and the rest of his team stayed silent, praying that he would miss, or that the goalie would be able to save it.

A quick flick of his foot and the ball was rocketed straight past the goalie and into the back of the net, earning a roar of applause from the Vermillion City fans. The Dragons were down to their final kick. Their team captain and leader walked onto the field, needing to make this shot to send the penalty kicks into sudden death, or it was all over.

Ash, May, and Dawn all stood in the stands shaking, both from the cold and from the nerves they felt. One kick could decide the difference between a historic win for Kanto High, or a gut-wrenching defeat. Everyone was silent, not a sound was heard except for the heavy breathing from Gary and goalie, who stared each other down. Gary thought back to all his memories playing soccer, from playing as a young kid, scoring his first goal, or making the varsity team at Kanto High in his freshman year, or breaking the all-time assists school record. Gary felt a sense of calm as he surveyed the ball and the goal in front of him.

The referee blew the whistle, giving Gary the signal to kick at any time. Gary took several steps back and picked a spot to kick the ball. In his years of soccer he had learned that goalies follow the kicker's eyes, so after choosing his spot he locked his eyes on the opposite side of the goal. With one final deep breath, he started his sprint forward, trying to get as much power behind the kick as he could. Gary closed his eyes, swung his leg with all his might and sent the ball flying. The next thing Gary heard was a resounding:

KLANK

 **Authors Note: First of all sorry for not updating in so long, now that I have some free time, ill be updating this story much more frequently. Now in regards to this chapter, no, Ash and Dawn will not end up together nor will there be anything else romantic between them. And don't worry more Advanceshipping moments will come eventually. Also, the next chapter will be the final one that contains any soccer and a focus on Gary, after that the story will shift more towards Ash and his adventures. Thanks for your patience everyone!**


	10. Chapter 10

The resounding "KLANK" of the ball hitting the goal post echoed throughout the field, as the entire atmosphere at Kanto High went quite. Everyone was holding their breaths as Gary took the kick, preparing to either go crazy or go home empty-handed.

It seemed as if the ball flew in slow motion through Gary Oak's eyes, he watched as it bounced off the right goal post, and flew straight towards the goalie, who was caught off guard by the ball's sudden change its direction. The goalie tried to coral the ball with his hands, but the ball slipped right through and rolled into the net on the other side of the goal.

The Kanto High bench and fans went ballistic, while Gary just sighed a breath of relief; he had just kept his team alive. While every goal was critical at this point in the game, Gary knew that it was far from over, and kept his cool as his teammates celebrated and congratulated him for scoring a clutch goal.

"Since we tied in the first shootout 3-3, we will go to a 2nd, sudden death shootout. The first team to score with the other team missing wins the championship!" The announcer said.

The Dragons had never gone to a sudden-death shootout before, so they didn't have a lineup predetermined before the match, as those who participated in the first shootout could not kick again.

After choosing five more players to take the penalty kicks the process started once again.

Vermillion City's first shooter took the kick, a fast shot towards the left. The Kanto High goalie reacted and swatted it away, causing the Kanto High fans anticipation to build. Since the Voltorb's had missed, Kanto High could win it with a goal on this kick. A boy named Barry stepped nervously out onto the field. He fidgeted as he walked over to the ball, with streaks of sweat running down his face. Not once in his life did he think he'd be the one with a chance to win Kanto High its first ever championship, if he even made it that is.

Barry wasn't even a starter in fact but now was finally his chance to prove himself.

With a scream he charged and closed eyes, kicking the ball as hard as he could.

Barry heard a loud Gasp from the stands followed by pure eruption. He opened his eyes to see the goalie lying down in the goal, the ball just out of his reach. As a smile came to his face, the rest of his teammates who had piled on top of him flattened him.

"The Dragons have won the regional championship match in a game for the ages!" The announcer said, though barely anyone could hear him as the Kanto High fans stormed onto the field to celebrate with the team.

The next several minutes were a total mosh pit of happiness and celebration. Dawn located Gary and jumped right into his arms, showering him with kisses. Spirits were high as the celebration continued, even more so after the team was handed the championship trophy.

Gary, with the trophy in hand, and a huge grin on his face, as everyone cheered his name, as he'd led them to a championship. It took another 30 min for the celebrations to die down and the crowd to disband.

Gary met with Ash and the girls and asked if they wanted to go with him to Brock Harrison's house for an after party. They all jumped into Dawn's car and headed to Pewter City, which is where Brock's house was.

"That was some game, Gary!" May said, who wasn't usually into sports but had taken a liking to soccer after watching so many games.

"Thanks, May, somehow we pulled it off!" Gary replied, relieved that they finally brought a championship to Kanto High.

"So what are you going to do now that soccer's over Gary?" Ash asked, knowing that soccer was a big part of Gary's life.

"Hmm… Not sure yet, I'm sure ill find something to do eventually." Gary said, waiting to put off that issue for another day.

Once they had reached Pewter City Gary directed Dawn the rest of the way to Brock's house. The house was just outside the town in the countryside and was already packed with people, the party obviously already starting. They pulled into the driveway and hopped out. As they entered the house they saw many familiar faces, and the blaring music, only made things louder. Thanks to being out in the country, they could be as loud as they wanted.

As the time passed, Ash, May, and Dawn all found themselves on a couch in one of the rooms, where they continued to chat about various things. As midnight approached, someone had brought a ton of alcohol, and since Brock's parents were gone for the week, they could get away with it. Soon enough, many people at the party started taking shots, including Dawn, who drank with Gary several times in the past.

As Dawn kept drinking an idea popped into her head. She ran over and pulled Ash and May off of the couch. Ash had never really drank before and usually stayed away from parties, but he figured that it'd be ok to do it just this once, it was a special occasion after all. May thought the same as she gave in and started drinking whatever Dawn had handed her.

Dawn, in her already drunken state, figured that if she got Ash and May drunk enough they might finally get together, so she sent shot after shot their way. The two of them had never gotten drunk before, so it wasn't long before they started feeling the effects of the alcohol entering their system.

Dawn made sure that they always stayed close to each other, as she didn't want them separating and running off with someone else. As the night went on they got much more talkative with each other, immersed in their drunken states.

It wasn't till Dawn started talking to May that things started going in the direction that she wanted. Ash and May started to get cozier with each other before ultimately heading out to the backyard. Dawn watched with a grin on her face as she realized what was about to happen.

Ash and May stumbled their way out the door, before sitting down on the grass in the backyard. They were all alone. At this point they were too drunk to even understand what was going on, even more, they just knew they were supposed to be celebrating. They both turned and looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. They slide closer to each other, their lips just mere inches from each other.

As they were about to touch, the door flew open and a group of people came running out, interrupting their moment. After deciding that it was getting too loud outside, they walked back into the house and went to back the couch, where they both passed out.

 **The Next Morning**

Ash, May, and Dawn all woke up the following morning, all of them having no recollection whatsoever of the previous night's events.

"Uh, what happened last night?" Ash groaned as rolled off the couch onto the floor.

"Where are we?" May asked as she opened her eyes, feeling the aftereffects of last nights party.

"We're still at Brock's house duh," Dawn said, who was already awake.

"How about we go back to my place?" Dawn asked the two of them, who both nodded, each wanting to get more sleep.

After dragging each other back to Dawn's car she drove them back to her house, where they all crashed for the next few hours.

Eventually, they all woke up, finally feeling like moving.

"Oh man, I forgot to today is Friday," May said, realizing that they'd all skipped school.

"What, I thought it was Saturday?" Said Ash.

"Well, what did they expect? Maybe they shouldn't have had the game on a Thursday?" Said Dawn, guessing that a lot of people were skipping school that day for one reason or another.

"Not sure if I'd ever want to do that again," Ash said, referencing the excessive drinking which they took part in.

"Oh ya, I only do that once in a while. Only for certain occasions." Dawn told them.

"So now what do we want to do?"

"I think I'll go home, I haven't trained with my Pokémon in forever it feels like." Said Ash.

"Same, I better go check how Torchic is doing," May replied.

Ash simply walked home, despite it being a long trek, he figured he needed it with how lazy he'd been the last few weeks. Ash had been in a slump for some time now when it came to training. He trained with his Pokémon only once or twice a week and was really disconnected with them. Ash was determined to change this, calling out all his Pokémon for a training session when he got back to Pallet Town.

Staraptor, Aipom, Charizard, Froakie, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu, this was Ash's current team, with Cyndaquil standing in for Pikachu while he was hurt.

While training for a while was satisfying, Ash was still craving an intense battle, figuring that a gym battle would be the perfect way to do that. It was decided, the next chance he got he would visit the Cerulean City gym again, and finally get his gym battle that he'd been waiting so long for.

 **Monday**

Ash and Gary were driving to Cerulean City, Ash looking to get his 2nd gym badge. Even Gary was going to challenge the gym leader, just cause he had nothing better to do now that soccer was finished for the year. That and to make sure he stayed in tip-top shape so that he could beat Ash again at any moments notice. Gary had brought his Bulbasaur and other Pokémon that he borrowed from Professor Oak.

Once they arrived at the gym they entered through the front doors. The inside looked so foreign to Ash, as it felt so empty without the crowds of people that had filled the building last time he was there. In fact, there was only one person there aside from themselves. The receptionist at the desk noticed them walk in and asked:

"Here for a gym battle?"

"Yup," The boys said.

"Just go down that hallway to the left then." The receptionist directed them as she pointed which way to go.

Ash and Gary walked down the hallway, which was unusually dark, after reaching a door at the end of the hall they walked through it into a much brighter room, which happened to be underneath the stage on the main floor of the gym, which the water shows took place on.

Inside that room stood the gym leader of the Cerulean gym.

"Oh, Hello!" The gym leader said, taking a couple seconds to realize that someone had walked into the room.

"We're here for a gym battle!" Ash said enthusiastically.

"Of course you are! I'm Misty the gym leader!" She said, noticing Ash's obvious excitement.

After Ash introduced himself and Gary, Misty led them to two separate elevators, where each took separate ones. After going into their separate elevators, they were taken up to the battlefield, which was the water pool where the shows were performed on. The battlefield was simply the large tank of water, along with several circular platforms spaced out across the surface of the water.

"As you can probably guess I specialize in water type Pokémon!" Said, Misty.

"So who's first?"

Gary stepped ahead of Ash. He would battle Misty first.

"I'll show you how it's done Ashy!" Gary said with the same cocky smirk that was always on his face during a Pokémon battle.

"3 on 3 sound good to you?" Misty asked, with Gary nodding in response.

"Alright, I'll start things off with Goldeen then!" She said as her first Pokémon, a Goldeen appeared out her pokeball and hopped straight into the water.

Gary responded by bringing out his Bulbasaur, a grass type having the advantage over a water type like Goldeen. However, you could say that Goldeen had the advantage since it could use the water, while Bulbasaur was stuck on small floating platforms.

"Let's get this started with Horn Drill!" In an instant, Goldeen jumped out of the water from behind Bulbasaur and sent it flying with a direct hit. Bulbasaur struggled back up to its feet, searching for Goldeen, who had disappeared back underneath the water.

"Do it again, Goldeen!" Said Misty, as Goldeen came in for another attack, hitting its horn full force into Bulbasaur, knocking it unconscious. Gary returned his Bulbasaur with a sour look on his face. After taking a moment to decide, he sent out his next Pokémon.

The small blue turtle appeared in the water, Gary had borrowed a Squirtle from Professor Oak. This would be much more effective, now that he could use the water to his advantage.

"Alright Squirtle use Rapid Spin!" Gary called, as Squirtle tucked itself inside its shell and spun itself around in circles. It propelled its way through the water, slamming Goldeen into the side of the tank. The force of the hit was enough to finish Goldeen in one hit, causing it to float back to the surface completely knocked out.

"Thanks, Goldeen!" Misty said.

"2 More Pokémon each, this should be a good one!" She said as she used her next Pokémon, a Staryu

"Staryu and I have been partners for a long time, so don't expect to win this battle so easily!"

"We'll just see about that," Gary said, telling Squirtle to use Water Gun. Misty's Staryu spun out of the way and went down into the water. As Gary planned his next move, Staryu continued to move under the water, returning on the other side of the platform. It flew like a Frisbee, sailing right into Squirtle, sending it flying. Squirtle responded with Skull Bash, giving Staryu a bit of damage.

"Use Swift"

"Dodge it Squirtle, then use Rapid Spin!"

"You use Rapid Spin too!" Misty said as both Pokémon were flying around in the water, trying to hit the other. Staryu was the first to make contact, but instead of hurting Squirtle, it only propelled it faster, until it looked like a pinball bouncing around the tank. Staryu tried to keep track of it but Squirtle was just moving too fast. Out of nowhere, Squirtle rammed right into Staryu sending it straight out of the water and into the side of the tank, where it slid down the wall and fell onto a platform. After a hit like that Staryu was certainly unable to battle any further.

As Ash watched from the sideline, he had realized that there was no referee at this gym, which he found odd, as every other gym he'd ever been to had had one. Ash tried to pick up on any techniques that Misty had been using but eventually gave up on the idea, figuring that she'd use different Pokémon then those she was using now, as that's what happened at the Pewter City gym with him and Richie. In the meantime Ash took his mind off of Gary's battle and studied the tank and floating platforms, trying to think of ways that he could use it to his advantage, both for attacking and defending.

"Your up Politoed!" Misty said. Ash had never seen a Politoed in person before, so his attention turned back to the battle, as he wanted to see what Politoed could do.

"Ok Politoed, us Bubble Beam!" A stream of bubbles shot out of its mouth, forcing Squirtle to defend itself with Water Gun.

"Use Hyper Voice!"

In an instant, the room was filled with a horrible noise, making Squirtle, as well as Gary and Ash, cover their ears at the terrible sound.

"Now finish it with double slap!" Misty called. Politoed leaped over to Squirtle who was still dazed from the hyper voice and started slapping it. It was only a matter of seconds before Squirtle collapsed onto the floor unconscious, leaving the battle up to Gary's final Pokémon.

Gary threw his final pokeball, revealing his Marshtomp, which was actually Gary's own Pokémon.

"Let's rap this up, use tackle Marshtomp!" Gary said. Marshtomp charged straight at Politoed, preparing to deliver a powerful hit.

"Block it Politoed!" Misty yelled. Politoed held up against Marshtomp as the two pushed against each other.

"Marshtomp use water gun!" Politoed was knocked back towards Misty as it couldn't withstand the point-blank range attack.

"Get up Politoed!" Misty said, as Politoed struggled to its feet.

"Use Hyper Voice!"

"Quick get into the water Marshtomp!" Gary said, realizing that if Marshtomp went underwater that Politoed's hyper voice wouldn't be as effective. Gary's idea worked, as Marshtomp dove into the water, it realized that the attack had little effect on it, allowing it to move around freely.

Misty took too long in deciding what to do next, and Gary took advantage of her indecisiveness.

"Jump out and use mud shot!" Marshtomp flew out of the water and sent its attack flying straight into Politoed.

"Hang in there Politoed!" Misty yelled, taking note of the obvious struggles that Politoed was having with standing back up.

"Let's finish this up Marshtomp, use water gun!" A stream of water shot out of Marshtomp's mouth and collided with Politoed, who was too exhausted to evade the attack. After tumbling backwards, Politoed tried it's best to regain its footing, but the damage it had taken was too much, as it finally collapsed onto the floor.

"Well, that's that," Gary said with a smirk of confidence appearing on his face. Misty hopped across the floating platforms to where Gary and Ash were standing.

"Here's your badge Gary, that was a really fun battle!" She said as Gary took the badge from her.

"Give me a few minutes to grab some of my other Pokémon, then I can battle with you, Ash." She told them before walking back and out of the arena. It was several minutes before Misty returned, that time being filled with Gary flashing his new badge in Ash's face.

Ash had waited a long time for this battle, so he was feeling the adrenaline rush through his body as he was finally going to have a chance to earn another gym badge.

"Ready to go Ash?"

"You bet, I've waited a long time for this battle and I'm going to win it!" Ash said with confidence.

"We'll just have to see about that," Misty said with a chuckle. She then grabbed the first of her three new pokeballs and threw it out over the water.

"A Corsola, hmm…" Ash said, deciding which Pokémon he would use first.

'Ok then, Staraptor your up!" The flying type Pokémon emerged from its pokeball and flew up into the air.

"Interesting Strategy Ash, Corsola can use the water but not the air, while Staraptor can use the air but not the water. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. You can take the first move." Misty said, curious as to what Ash would do in this situation.

"Alright, use quick attack!" Staraptor sped down towards Corsola, flying along the surface of the water. Corsola ducked right under the water as Staraptor got close, causing it to miss and fly straight into the side of the tank.

"Ugh, come on Staraptor you can do it!" Ash said, trying to encourage his Pokémon after its embarrassing miss.

"Use bubble beam Corsola!" Misty said. Corsola hopped out of the water and sent a barrage of bubbles Staraptor's way, knocking it right back to the floor.

"Get back in the air!" Ash yelled, as Staraptor fought through the attack and managed to get back in the air.

"Use double team to confuse it Staraptor!" Soon the air was filled with fake clones of Staraptor.

"Now use close combat!" Staraptor rushed in before Corsola and Misty could react and started delivering powerful blows, after sustaining several hits, Corsola managed to get out of Staraptor's reach, only to be hit by a quick attack. Corsola look to be defeated, only for it to begin to glow.

"What's it doing?" Ash asked, not sure of what was happening.

"That's Corsola's recover, it restores some of its energy, now let's go! Use beam again!" Corsola attack made direct contact with Staraptor and pushed it back into the wall of the arena. Ash was having a tough time, only made worse when his Pokémon landed motionless in front of him.

"You did good Staraptor, thanks." He said as he put Staraptor back into its pokeball. Ash's strategy had totally failed and was now currently losing the battle. If only he had Pikachu to battle with, then this battle would be a breeze. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, so Ash had to choose a different Pokémon to battle with.

"Bulba!" Ash's Bulbasaur said as it came out of Ash's pokeball. He figured using a grass type was his best bet against Misty's water type Pokémon.

"Let's start with razor leaf!" A stream of leaves flew from Bulbasaur, which Corsola subsequently dodged by diving beneath the water. Fortunately for Ash, Corsola had only gone a few feet under the water, and Ash saw an opportunity.

"Quick grab it with vine whip Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur shot its vines into the water and grabbed Corsola. It pulled it back to the surface and slammed it onto the floor.

"Finish it with tackle!"

With one last hit, Corsola was too exhausted to continue, causing it to collapse to the floor.

"Thank you Corsola," Misty said as she returned it to its pokeball.

"It's your time to shine now Azurill!" The small blue Pokémon appeared, it was so small Ash almost had to squint to see it, as it wasn't the most intimidating Pokémon.

"Use slam!"

The small Pokémon use its round tail to bounce its way over to Bulbasaur and crash into it, delivering more force in the attack then most people would think it was capable of. Bulbasaur tumbled backwards before regaining its footing.

"Bulbasaur use razor leaf!"

"Use bounce to dodge it!" Azurill used its tail to bounce itself over the razor leaf attack, and over Bulbasaur as well.

"Now use bubble!"

Bulbasaur was once again it with another attack. As the battle continued Bulbasaur was unable to land an attack, with Azurill being too agile for it to track accurately.

"Use Vine Whip!" Bulbasaur launched its vines at Azurill, causing it to jump into the air.

"Now use razor leaf!" Auzrill had nowhere to go as it was stuck in the air, and Bulbasaur was able to hit it head-on. The two continued to duel it out, each landing an attack every now and then. Finally, the two collided head to head with each other, knocking each other back to the ground.

"Bulbasaur!"

"Azurill no!"

The two Pokémon attempted to regain their footing, but neither one was able to as they both collapsed on the floor, making it a draw. With just one more Pokémon left on each side, Ash knew that he would have to choose his final Pokémon wisely. Ash finally came to a decision on his final Pokémon and grabbed his final pokeball. Just as he and Misty were about to throw their final Pokémon onto the field, they were instantly blinded, as every light in the entire building had gone completely dark.

"Uh, what's going on?" Ash asked.

"Not sure, let me see if I can figure out what's going on?" Misty said, having to climb into the stands, as the elevators they came in were no longer working. Misty made her way over towards the front desk where the receptionist was to see if she knew anything. Meanwhile, Ash and Gary waited in the dark, the only light they had was that from their cell phones.

"Well this is pretty odd don't you think?" Ash said, never expecting a battle to be delayed by a power outage.

"Ya, not sure why the powers out, it's not like its storming or anything," Gary said, using the light from his phone to look around, the lacks of light making the arena look rather spooky.

They heard something down the hall that Misty had gone down. They're ears perked up as they expected her to walk back and explain why there was no power. Instead, they heard muffled voices and then screams.

"He-lp.."

"What in the world is going on?" Gary asked. All of a sudden everything went silent, as a pair of people rounded the corner, revealing themselves. Alongside them was a small Pokémon, a Meowth to be exact. Ash and Gary sudden realized what was happening. This was a group of thieves; they were famous in the Kanto region for stealing both money as well as peoples Pokémon, yet they always eluded the police. Now Ash and Gary found themselves face to face with the notorious Team Rocket.

 **Authors Note:**

 **Hey everyone, I really should've had this out sooner but I got a bit lazy with midterms last week. Anyways to answer some questions you might have: No, Ash and May don't remember a thing about trying to kiss each other but don't worry, there'll be some advanchipping moments coming up soon. Also, i'd like to point out that in my story, team rocket is actually more like real criminals, so they'll face a formidable challenge to Ash unlike in the anime. But don't worry, if your like me and hate team rockets, you won't have to deal with them much, as they got better things to do then mess with Ash all the time.**


End file.
